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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26745517">Little Harmonic Labyrinth</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Energybeing/pseuds/Energybeing'>Energybeing</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Star Trek: Voyager</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:27:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>80,945</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26745517</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Energybeing/pseuds/Energybeing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Someone is breaking time."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I own neither Buffy nor Star Trek: Voyager. Please don’t sue me for using them.</p><p>The title is a reference to a chapter of the same name in ‘Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid’ by Douglas Hofstader, which I don’t own. That chapter is in turn a reference to a piece of music attributed to J.S. Bach, which I also don’t own.</p><p>This story begins almost two hundred years before the events of Voyager and almost 170 years post-‘Chosen’.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <i>Itamish III, 2176</i>
</p><p>“Someone is breaking time.”</p><p>Buffy jumped in surprise. With all the people around her, she hadn’t noticed anyone come up behind her. For fifteen years now, the most startling thing she’d had to deal with was just how bad the average tourist was at water-skiing. Of course, if they ever got better, they’d put her out of a job. She turned around. “Would it kill you to not do the whole sneaking thing?”</p><p>Illyria appeared to give the question some thought. “I doubt it.”</p><p>Buffy rolled her eyes. “Good to see you’ve really got a handle on humour, Blue. It’s nice to know that some things don’t change.”</p><p>Illyria nodded. “Your endless capacity for inane babble is as constant as ever.”</p><p>“Not bad,” Buffy said grudgingly. Her expression turned serious. “Anyway, what’s this about someone breaking time?”</p><p>“Someone has repeatedly been altering history. Sometimes on a very small scale – I believe they may have altered the course of a single atom – and sometimes significantly larger.”</p><p>“I haven’t noticed anything.”</p><p>“Your senses are limited.”</p><p>“I suppose I walked into that one,” Buffy muttered. It had been close to twenty years since she’d last spoken to Illyria. She hadn’t missed it. “Why are they doing it?”</p><p>“I’m uncertain,” Illyria admitted. Buffy blinked. Hearing Illyria admit that she was anything less than omniscient was rare. “I know it’s happening. At the moment, that’s about all I know.”</p><p>“You sure it isn’t some sort of subspace disturbance or something? Starfleet seems to love those.”</p><p>“That was my first thought. I have spent some time searching through Starfleet and Federation research databases. If anyone is aware of this phenomenon, there have been no official records of it.”</p><p>“Doesn’t mean that there aren’t some <i>un</i>official records,” Buffy pointed out. “Not like Command kept notes on everything they were up to during the war, for example. If someone’s up to some temporal shenanigans, might be a secret project.” There’d been plenty of those when the war with the Romulans had been at its height. She wouldn’t be surprised if Starfleet had greenlit something that might be able to go back two decades and end the war before it had begun. Some days, it seemed like everyone had lost someone during the war. There were always people who couldn’t move on from something like that.</p><p>Speaking of. Whatever Illyria might have said was interrupted by the arrival of a tall, slender man in his mid-forties. He had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. “Enjoying the fair, Summers? Fifteen glorious years of this Federation of ours.” Although his voice was bright and cheerful and he was smiling, none of the humour reached his eyes.</p><p>“Hi, Danny,” Buffy said, trying to ignore the way that Illyria had <i>sharpened</i> when she’d seen the man approach. “Nice day for it, isn’t it?”</p><p>“It’s almost like the people who manage the environmental controls arranged a lovely sunny day for us,” Danny agreed. “Not that they’d do anything like that, of course.”</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>“Well, Summers, I’ll leave you with your friend.” Danny nodded at Illyria. “Don’t forget that I booked you for a spin on the Ferris wheel later.” He pushed his way back through the crowd of people that were out celebrating the 15th anniversary of the founding of the United Federation of Planets.</p><p>“The resemblance to your sister is striking,” Illyria commented as soon as he was out of earshot.</p><p>Buffy sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”</p><p>“I had wondered why you’d decided to base yourself here. The life of a water-ski instructor doesn’t seem like it would suit you.”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “I was a soldier for five years. Figured it was time for a change.”</p><p>“I’m sure that the presence of a distant nephew had nothing to do with it.”</p><p>“You know what, Blue? I think I preferred talking to you when you avoided sarcasm and stuck with the mindboggling condescension.” </p><p>“Is your inferior, linear mind capable of returning to the matter at hand?”</p><p>“Oh, <i>thanks</i>,” Buffy said darkly. “So. Someone’s breaking time. You don’t know who, you don’t know why. Tell me you at least know where.”</p><p>Illyria pointed at an angle 45 degrees from the ground.</p><p>“You’re telling me that someone’s messing with time, and they just happen to be doing it on the same planet that I’m on?”</p><p>If Illyria hadn’t considered herself above such things, Buffy suspected that she’d have rolled her eyes. “No. I feel someone altering time, and all of the alterations have come from that specific direction.”</p><p>“You got anything more concrete than ‘Second star on the right and straight on till morning’?”</p><p>“Not at the moment.”</p><p>“So basically you’ve got nothing, and you’ve decided that you want to come and dump your nothing on me.”</p><p>“For the past two years, someone has been repeatedly altering time on a grand scale. That seems like something that you should know about.”</p><p>“As much as I’m glad you decided to do some loop-keeping, I really don’t know what you expect me to do about any of this.”</p><p>“I will keep you apprised as I discover more. Should I vanish, then you should know that it’s in the pursuit of this information. It will be up to you to find out what happened to me, and to-”</p><p>“Have I ever told you how creepy it is that you use me as a kind of living will?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Well… don’t.”</p><p>“If there was someone else I would use them instead.” Despite the harshness of the words, there was none of the Old One’s usual disdain.</p><p>That was the issue. There was no one else. Hadn’t been for a long, long time now. </p><p>“Anyway, I’m out of that sort of thing. Got my honourable discharge. I’m retired.”</p><p>“You will have to leave this world eventually. People will notice that you don’t age.”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Claiming an alien ancestor seems to be working out just fine.”</p><p>“An excuse will work for a time,” Illyria agreed, “but that time will come to an end. Whatever ties that bind you to this world will rot away.”</p><p>“I’d forgotten how cheerful you were.”</p><p>Illyria ignored her. Instead, she looked up at the Ferris wheel. “I have always enjoyed this ride.”</p><p>Buffy looked at her in surprise. “Really? I always thought you saw things with no practical purpose as below you.”</p><p>“One seems to move so far, and yet in reality one gets nowhere.”</p><p>Before Buffy could even <i>try</i> to say something snarky, the other woman vanished into the crowd.</p><p>~*~</p><p> <i>Itamish III, 2208</i></p><p>It was nearly sunset. She’d missed the funeral. Even though Buffy had known that she wouldn’t be able to attend – she couldn’t pass for Vulcan, even distantly, and she didn’t know any other race that was long-lived enough that she could use to justify the fact that she hadn’t aged for more than thirty years – she still wished that she could have been there.</p><p>Not that it would have mattered to Danny, of course. Most of him had died when a Romulan Bird-of-Prey had ambushed his ship and torn it to shreds. The bridge had sealed off from the rest of the ship, and they’d been the only ones to survive. Less than a dozen out of a crew of almost a hundred.</p><p>Buffy had been part of the rescue mission. When she’d seen him, battered, unconscious, half-dead from oxygen deprivation, she’d stopped in her tracks. Memories of more than a century earlier had flooded her mind. It had been a different war, a different place – but it had been Buffy standing over a broken body. Danny had looked so much like Dawn.</p><p>She didn’t look at the gravestone. Instead she looked at the sky, and watched as the sun gently slipped over the horizon. She didn’t turn around when she heard footsteps behind her.</p><p>“It was a fitting memorial,” Illyria said quietly. “Many people he’d served with arrived.”</p><p>“You were there?” Buffy didn’t take her eyes off the horizon.</p><p>“I thought that one of us should be.”</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>Illyria didn’t reply. Instead, she came to stand next to Buffy. Her gaze, too, was focused on the horizon. “She wasn’t there.”</p><p>“Mhm?”</p><p>“Your sister.”</p><p>There was a heavy weight in Buffy’s chest. It had been more than a hundred years, but sometimes she still ached. “I didn’t really expect anything but… it would have been nice.”</p><p>They stood in silence for a few moments longer as the sun finally set. There was no flicker of green energy in the sky. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a sunset. The world was still spinning, just as it always did.</p><p>“I had hoped that she would be like us.”</p><p>Buffy looked down, closed her eyes, took a deep breath. She wouldn’t wish this existence on anyone. After a moment, when the band of pain wrapped around her heart had stopped squeezing <i>quite</i> so tightly, she looked over at Illyria.</p><p>Her hair was shorter than it had been thirty years ago, and there were no blue streaks in her hair or blue patches on her skin. Her ears were pointed. “You a Vulcan now?”</p><p>Illyria nodded. “I attached myself to the Vulcan Science Academy. I am now considered something of an expert in temporal anomalies.”</p><p>“You any closer to figuring out who’s messing around with time?”</p><p>“It is not, I believe, a result of Federation research. If it was, I would have been approached.”</p><p>“And you’re sure that it’s deliberate? Not some kind of <i>real</i> temporal anomaly?”</p><p>“I am.”</p><p>Buffy opened her mouth to ask how, but then she shut it again. She didn’t think that she’d understand if Illyria bothered to explain. “So who do you think is behind it?”</p><p>“Someone a very long way away. I have spent the last couple of decades trying to build a sensor sophisticated enough to detect exactly what is going on. Current technology doesn’t seem to be up to the task, but it has at least allowed me to establish that whatever is happening is far, far outside the range of the Federation’s purview.”</p><p>“Romulans?”</p><p>“Possibly. Given that I’ve exhausted the resources of the Academy, I thought I should have a look.”</p><p>“You’re planning on crossing the Neutral Zone? Good luck with that.”</p><p>“Luck is irrelevant. If one is willing to spend enough time in preparation, one does not need subject oneself to the whims of fate.”</p><p>“You must’ve fit in really well on Vulcan, huh?”</p><p>“Indeed.”</p><p>“You want me to come with you?”</p><p>“No. It would be illogical for both of us to travel together. In any case,” Illyria gestured at her ears as they shifted between pointed and rounded, “I am better suited for infiltration.”</p><p>“Maybe you’ll get to see what Romulans actually look like.”</p><p>“That seems likely.”</p><p>“Anyway, Blue, about this time breaking thing. Why’re you so hellbent on trying to work out what’s going on? It’s been happening for, what, thirty-five years now? There’s been a distinct lack of universe ending.”</p><p>“Where does the sun set, on this planet?”</p><p>“Uh, over there,” Buffy pointed. “East. You know, the direction that you were just looking at when you <i>watched</i> it set.” As she spoke, she had a momentary sense of discomfort. Language had changed quite a bit with the advent of easy space travel. There'd been a time when the sun had set in the west because that's what the west <i>meant</i>. It had been a long time since that was true - these days it was just a position in relation to magnetic north. </p><p>“How do you know it sets there?”</p><p>“Again, did you miss the part where we just saw it set?”</p><p>“You know that the sun sets in the east because it has always set in the east.”</p><p>“Sure. Let’s go with that.”</p><p>“And in what direction will the sun rise in the morning?”</p><p>“That sounds like a trick question, ‘cause you <i>know</i> I’m going to say west.”</p><p>“You know that the sun rises in the west because it has always risen in the west.”</p><p>“Are we getting to the point-having part yet?”</p><p>“Just because something has always happened before doesn’t mean that it will always happen again. When time breaks, only a fool or a god claims certainty about what will happen.”</p><p>Buffy sighed noisily. “You know, you could’ve just said that just because there hasn’t been a universe-shattering kaboom just <i>yet</i> doesn’t mean that mean that there won’t be one.”</p><p>“There may be a catastrophic outcome tomorrow. It may come in two centuries. I cannot be certain.” Buffy couldn’t miss the bitter edge to Illyria’s words. When time breaks, only a fool or a god claims certainty – Illyria had <i>been</i> a god once. Now, it was all she could do to feel that there was something happening at all.</p><p>“Okay. Fine. So you’re going on a crazy mission across the Neutral Zone and into Romulan space. When do you want me to come and pick you up when it all goes pear-shaped?”</p><p>“Twenty-five years should be sufficient,” Illyria said blandly. </p><p>“Great. I’ll mark it on the calendar.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>
  <i>Chaltok IV, 2232</i>
</p><p>“It isn’t the Romulans.”</p><p>“Okay. Any idea who it might be?”</p><p>“I am still uncertain. Current data suggests that it might be somewhere in the Delta Quadrant.”</p><p>“As fun as this whole thing is, I’m not hunting through a quarter of the galaxy with you.”</p><p>“I will try to refine my data further. I’ll contact you again when I have something.”</p><p>“Cool, cool – anyway, now would probably be a good time to make our cunning getaway.”</p><p>“I agree.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>
  <i>Marva IV, 2371</i>
</p><p>“I believe I have located the source of the repeated temporal alterations.” </p><p>Buffy whirled around, phaser in hand. “Prophets, Blue! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” She looked around at the other Maquis – half of them had their phasers out and trained on Illyria. “It’s fine, she’s a friend. I’ll vouch for her. I just didn’t expect to see her here.” The phasers were put away, but the suspicious looks weren’t. She was sure that there’d be a comprehensive background check done on Illyria by the time the conversation was over. She wondered what they’d find.</p><p>She grinned. They’d find whatever Illyria wanted them to find. “Been a long time. Seems like, what, a hundred and fifty years?” The Maquis would be eavesdropping on the conversation, she knew. She doubted that Illyria would care, but Buffy had made a home here. Best not to let them know how old she was.</p><p>“Something like that,” Illyria said, perfectly matching Buffy’s light and airy tone.</p><p>“So you’ve decided to leave the heady heights of academia and come grubbing with us grunts?”</p><p>“Certainly. I found what I was looking for, but given that it seems to be about 60,000 light years away it doesn’t seem like I can do anything about it. So I thought I’d throw in my lot with you.”</p><p>“You don’t have to sound so pleased about it.” Buffy grabbed Illyria’s arm and pulled her away. “Come. Let’s get you sorted out.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>As it turned out, that didn’t take much time. Illyria had been as thorough as always. Even so, it would take more than impeccable records and Buffy vouching for her for the Maquis to trust her. They’d been burned before. They wanted to give her a chance to prove herself.</p><p>“She can come with us,” Chakotay said. “Not much harm she can do out in the Badlands.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>“Why are you acting like you’re thinking about sticking around here?” Buffy asked, when she got a chance to be alone with the other woman. “You found what you were looking for, and you told me. Shouldn’t you go haring off now? If I don’t see you in, oh, a hundred and fifty years or so I’ll come looking for you.”</p><p>“Travelling alone seems unwise in this instance.”</p><p>“Why? It’s always been good enough for you before.”</p><p>“Before, I was operating within the borders of known space.”</p><p>“Sure, because the Romulan Empire was <i>definitely</i> something we knew about a hundred and fifty years ago,” Buffy said drily. “Come on. We didn’t even know they were Vulcan offshoots at the time.” She’d actually won a lot of money when that had come to light. There’d been a lot of betting about what Romulans looked like.</p><p>“Nevertheless, they were a known quantity. The Delta Quadrant is not.”</p><p>“Gotta say, a hundred and twenty year round trip with you doesn’t sound like my idea of a good time.”</p><p>“Nor is it mine. But it is the best option we have for dealing with the time alterations.”</p><p>“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re kind of busy here at the moment. Plus, your whole time breaking thing might never actually, you know, <i>break</i>. Or it might break right now. Whatever. Fact is, we don’t need to hurry.”</p><p>“Which is why I’m planning on staying here, until such time that you decide to come with me.”</p><p>Buffy scowled. She’d like to argue, but she knew Illyria. When she got an idea in her head, she was as stubborn as a rock. </p><p>On the other hand, Buffy could be stubborn too. “I’m not going to the Delta Quadrant with you. Not for a long time, if there’s anything I can do about it.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>As it turned out, there wasn’t. Being pulled across the galaxy by an incredibly advanced alien wasn’t something that she could really do anything about. She couldn’t even really blame Illyria for it.</p><p>She did anyway.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was surprisingly easy to stay under the radar on <i>Voyager</i>. As with most Starfleet ships, there was a tendency for the highest ranking officers to do pretty much everything. Everyone else just had to stick around and stop the ship from falling apart.</p><p>Buffy got herself involved in Security. While she knew her way around a ship’s engines, she was no scientist. Her role let her occasionally beat up bad guys and get involved on away missions. The biggest thing that she had to worry about was getting injured. She was human, but she healed much, <i>much</i> faster than she really should. If she got badly injured and then walked out of Sickbay a few hours later, there would be questions that she didn’t really want to answer. Let alone what would happen if something fatal happened. That would be really awkward.</p><p>It was more difficult for Illyria, of course. She couldn’t pass as human on anything other than a superficial level. Though she had systems in place to make sure that nothing unusual got flagged, she still avoided the sickbay and she never transported anywhere. Fortunately, engineers rarely left the ship, and the Old One was careful not to put herself in any situation where her unusual biology would be noticed.</p><p>It couldn’t last forever, of course. The journey back to the Alpha Quadrant was due to take about 75 years. Eventually someone would notice that they weren’t what they pretended to be.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Buffy flopped back on the bed. It had been an exhausting four days. They’d been deep in Borg territory. <i>Voyager</i> had managed to get involved in a war between the Borg and a race of extradimensional aliens known as Species 8472. Given that Species 8472 had seemed hell-bent on eradicating all life in the universe, Captain Janeway had made a deal with the devil and allied with the Borg. For days they’d been in danger of being obliterated by Species 8472. Once they managed to force back the aliens into their home dimension, the Borg had betrayed them and threatened to assimilate them. Every security officer on board had been on high alert for the duration. </p><p>But they were out of the woods now. Or they would be, once they stripped out all the Borg technology their temporary allies had foisted on them. At the moment, they couldn’t even go to warp. If the Borg stumbled across them, they’d be sitting ducks.</p><p>It had been an exhausting four days. It had been an exhausting four <i>years</i>. Buffy had never known a crew that was more unlucky than this one.</p><p>To cap it all off, she couldn’t even go back to her quarters. Kes’ psychokinetic powers were acting up. The Ocampan had almost caused a hull breach earlier, and so every crewmember not engaged in essential activities had been ordered to the centre of the ship in order to minimize the danger. Buffy had never regretted having a window before.</p><p>Which was why she was here. While Buffy could go for more than a week without sleeping if she had to, Illyria didn’t have to sleep at all. She was busy at her workstation in the corner of the room, making sure that the structural integrity field of the ship was as strong as it could be.</p><p>Buffy was off-duty. She’d been awake for days. She should be trying to get some sleep. She wasn’t bothered by the busy Old One in the corner of the room – she’d slept in worse situations, in the last few centuries. She’d slept in war zones.</p><p>But she found herself staring at the ceiling instead of sleeping. “Blue? What do you think about the Borg?”</p><p>“In the general or special case?” Illyria replied without looking up.</p><p>“I mean the one we’ve currently got locked in the basement.” During their brief alliance with the Borg, they’d been assigned a drone that acted as a liaison. When the Borg had betrayed them, they’d had to sever the drone from the Collective in order to make their escape. </p><p>“I doubt she’ll survive.”</p><p>“Why? The Doc’s good at what he does, and people have been pulled out of the Collective before. Chakotay has. There was that guy the Enterprise found back home in the Alpha Quadrant, too.”</p><p>“I have no doubt that she’ll survive physically. The mechanical components of the Borg can be removed. But she is Borg. Everything that she is will seek to return to Collective, and if she fails she’ll seek her own destruction. I don’t think that she’ll survive degeneracy.”</p><p>“Calling her degenerate is a bit harsh, don’t you think? Being human’s not so bad.” Not that Illyria would agree, of course.</p><p>Illyria shot her a withering look. “To be a degenerate case is to appear qualitatively different. Any Borg would rather die than be different from the rest of Collective.”</p><p>“You might be underestimating the human drive to survive.”</p><p>Illyria paused for a fraction of a second. “She won’t think of herself as human.”</p><p>Buffy folded her hands behind her head. “I spent some time on Bajor. The Cardassians spent a lot of time trying to convince them that they were things. If you spend enough time treating a whole people as though they're lower than dirt, they might just start to believe it. Least that was their plan. But the Bajorans held out. People always hold out.”</p><p>“I was there at the battle of Wolf 359.” As usual, Illyria spoke without inflection, delivering the words in a neutral tone as though she was commenting on the weather. </p><p>Buffy rolled over to look at the other woman. “Really? I figured you spent the last century or so locked away in a lab, trying to figure out who was messing with time.” Buffy hadn’t been at Wolf 359. She hadn’t known about it until it was too late, and in any case there wasn’t a lot that a Slayer could do in a space battle.</p><p>“The Borg generate a chroniton field in order to survive the stress of travelling through transwarp conduits. Such technology could, in theory, be applied to alter history. I became involved in a Starfleet program under Admiral Hanson, to develop strategies to defend against the Borg. It was the easiest way to gain access to information about them. I developed a weapon to destabilise the chroniton field as they go to transwarp, causing them to be torn apart. I was there to test it.”</p><p>“Didn’t work, huh?”</p><p>“No,” Illyria said shortly. “In any case, the Borg don’t see themselves as lower than dirt. They see themselves as perfect, or close to it. To expect a drone to survive long-term without the Collective would be like expecting your fingernail to have a life of its own.”</p><p>“Hmm,” Buffy said, unconvinced. “Did I ever tell you about the time that I-“</p><p>She was interrupted when the ship began shaking violently. Buffy leapt to her feet – only her supernatural balance kept her upright. She felt like there was a gigantic force pushing against her. Whatever had happened, they were moving very, very quickly, and the inertial dampeners couldn’t keep up. </p><p>Judging by the creaking sounds all around them, it sounded like the ship couldn’t either.</p><p>“Structural integrity?” Buffy shouted.</p><p>Illyria didn’t reply. She stood hunched at her workstation. She was holding on so tightly that her fingers were white. Which was strange, Buffy thought – Illyria was careful not to give any sign of her superhuman strength, and she could tell that there were going to be handprints. Plus Illyria’s balance was as good as Buffy’s. Both of them could stay on their feet even if they were in the middle of a hurricane. Both of them <i>had</i>. She didn’t need the support.</p><p>Whatever had happened stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Illyria didn’t move. She was as still as only someone who didn’t need to breathe could be.</p><p>“Hey, Blue? You okay there?”</p><p>No response. No sign that Illyria had even heard. She was as still as a statue.</p><p>Buffy reached out to put her hand on her shoulder.</p><p>Illyria reared backwards so quickly that she didn’t even seem to move at all. Her eyes were wide, and they looked like shattered ice. They were a far cry from the normal, human eyes she pretended to have. She looked like a startled animal. She was staring at Buffy, but didn’t seem to really see her. If she’d had lungs, she would have been breathing heavily.</p><p>“Don’t you hear it?” Illyria hissed between her teeth.</p><p>Buffy frowned. “Hear what?”</p><p>“Something broke. Shattered like glass. Tinkling shards hovering in the air. If you listen you’ll hear the tone change.”</p><p>“Illyria,” Buffy said, “what are you talking about?”</p><p>Illyria’s eyes scrunched shut. Her hands balled into fists. Everything about her screamed <i>tension</i>. Then she opened them again, and it was as though nothing had happened. Her eyes were a normal, human blue. She looked relaxed and calm. “Something changed. The future has come loose.”</p><p>Buffy blinked. “Are we there already? I thought we were still 10,000 light years from wherever your time breaking stuff is going on.”</p><p>“I don’t know. But something that happened once has never happened. The past changed, and the future will change with it.” Illyria’s eyes glittered. “Let’s see if we can find out what didn’t happen.”</p><p>“Yeah, right. I don’t know about you, but trying to find out what didn’t happen sounds impossible.”</p><p>Illyria tapped her combadge. “Ensign Illyria to Engineering. Status?”</p><p>“Somehow, Kes just shunted us across 10,000 light years,” B’Elanna answered tiredly. “How’s the structural integrity field holding up?”</p><p>“It’s fine,” Illyria said, without glancing at her workstation. “How’d she move us that far that quickly?”</p><p>“Wish I knew, but something tells me we aren’t going to find out any time soon.”</p><p>“Can’t we just ask her?”</p><p>“Nope. She left the ship and then dissolved into some kind of energy or something. Ask the Doctor if you want more details. Anyway, we could really use a hand down here.”</p><p>“On my way.” Illyria looked at Buffy. “Something about Kes’ history changed. I’m going to be busy for a while making sure the ship stays in one piece, but you can go looking.”</p><p>“You want me to look for something that didn’t happen? I’m no Vulcan, but I’m pretty sure trying to find something that doesn’t exist is illogical. If time changed, wouldn’t her records change too?”</p><p>“Look for clues,” Illyria said, as though she was talking to a small child. She walked out before Buffy had a chance to respond.</p><p>“Oh yeah, really helpful.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>Sickbay was busy. For a moment Buffy was surprised, but then she remembered that they’d just been pushed thousands of light years in a handful of seconds. Not everyone was as good as staying on their feet as she was. Most of the injuries were minor – bumps and scrapes. The Doctor wasn’t immediately visible. Normally Buffy would have expected to see him bustling around, grumpily patching people up.</p><p>It was only when she saw two people in security yellow standing guard in the corner that she realised that he probably had more pressing concerns. From what little Buffy could see, he seemed to be simultaneously operating on the Borg drone and being annoyed about the fact that Tuvok was standing so close.</p><p>“So, what’re you in for, Summers?”</p><p>Buffy turned to see Tom Paris looking at her, medical tricorder in one hand. “You been roped into medical duty again?”</p><p>Tom rubbed his eyes tiredly. “I don’t know what my sins were, but they must’ve been whoppers.”</p><p>“I’m not injured. I was going to ask the Doctor for access to Kes’ medical records, but he’s busy.”</p><p>“What do you want those for?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Somehow she managed to push us across 10,000 light years. If we can figure out how, maybe we can be home by lunch.”</p><p>Tom’s stomach rumbled. “You just had to mention food, didn’t you?” He grimaced. “On the other hand, all I’ve got to look forward to is Neelix’s cooking.”</p><p>“I’ll trade you some replicator rations for the records.” Illyria didn’t need to eat, so she always gave her rations to Buffy. It meant that she rarely had to go to mess hall. </p><p>“As good as that sounds, the Doc’s the one you’ll have to speak to about that.” Paris looked at her closely. “Do you have a medical background you’ve been keeping hidden from us, Summers? What makes you think you’d be able to make anything out of her records in the first place?”</p><p>“I’m sure there’s some people down in Engineering who’d love to take a crack at them.”</p><p>“Doubt they’ll do much good. From what I’ve heard, seems like what happened to Kes wasn’t exactly the sort of thing they cover in Engineering 101. Tuvok said she claimed to see beyond the sub-atomic, and she kind of came apart in a wave of energy. We don’t even know <i>what</i> she did, let alone <i>how</i> she did it.”</p><p>“Still, better to look for clues than just give up.” Of course, Tom was right. She could manage first aid, but she’d never gone beyond that. She doubted that she’d be able to make heads or tails of Kes’ records. But it was better than nothing.</p><p>“I suppose there’s that,” Tom agreed. “Talk to the Doc once everything’s calmed down a bit.”</p><p>“Any idea when that’ll be?”</p><p>Tom just shrugged.</p><p>“Great. Well, thanks. Have fun playing doctor.”</p><p>“Not even the Doctor has fun playing doctor.”</p><p>Buffy left the sickbay. She wondered how she could prove that the past had changed. Any data that she found would be from the past as it stood now, and wouldn’t indicate that there had ever been any other past. Maybe Illyria would be able to find something. Buffy wasn’t sure how she could. The best that she could do was get some sleep and hope that tomorrow would be better.</p><p>Then the ship rocked to the side, and sirens began to sound as the ship went on red alert. Someone was firing at them.</p><p>Buffy sighed. Just once, she’d like to have a day off.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Buffy turned around and headed back to the sickbay. She was off duty, so she didn’t have to be at her post, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t help out. Sickbay had been crowded even before the attack, and with the Doctor occupied with the Borg drone it wouldn’t take much for Tom to be swamped. While Buffy was no medic, she could manage first aid. She’d patched up people often enough to pick up a thing or six.</p><p>Tuvok walked out of Sickbay just before Buffy got there. Buffy stood aside and waited for her direct superior to move past. He gave her an appraising look. “Walk with me, Ensign.”</p><p>Buffy fell into step next to him as they headed towards the turbolift. “What’s the situation, sir?”</p><p>“I don’t know. This is a new region of space.” They walked into the turbolift. “Bridge.”</p><p>They stood in silence for several seconds. “Is there something specific that you wanted?” Buffy asked after another jolt told her that they’d been hit again.</p><p>“It seems likely that I’ll be needed on the bridge for the immediate future. That means that I can’t keep an eye on the drone.”</p><p>“You’ve got a couple of crewman down there, and the Doctor can keep her sedated basically forever if he needs to.”</p><p>“Correct, but if we aren’t to be destroyed-“ as if on cue, there was another jolt. Tuvok carried on as though nothing had happened. “-then we’ll need all our systems to be operational. In order to remove the Borg technology, the captain feels that we may need the help of the Borg.”</p><p>“You want a drone that’s been yoinked from the Collective and has just come off the operating table to help us get the ship running in the middle of a firefight?” Buffy shook her head. “Doesn’t seem like the best plan.”</p><p>“Unfortunately, we seem to have no other options.”</p><p>“Okay, but I’m not seeing what this has got to do with me. I’m also getting the feeling that I’m not going to like it when I <i>do</i> see it.” Tuvok raised an eyebrow at her. “I <i>am</i> off duty, sir.”</p><p>“Not anymore. I’m putting you in charge of making sure that the drone doesn’t do anything… inadvisable.”</p><p>“Like sabotaging us or contacting the rest of the Borg.”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Why me, sir? I’m not an engineer – if she’s tinkering with our systems, I won’t be able to make heads or tails of it. Plus you’ve already got two crewmen guarding her. Tossing me into the mix isn’t going to make a difference.” </p><p>“Because I order it, Ensign.”</p><p>Buffy grinned. “Fair enough.”</p><p>“Last time the drone… helped us, she knocked out Ensign Kim and tried to access our communications array. I doubt that you’ll be as easily incapacitated, and I have often observed that you function better without sleep than the majority of my officers. They, like you, have been on alert for four days. I have confidence in your abilities to think on your feet.”</p><p>“Thank you, sir.”</p><p>Tuvok inclined his head slightly. “Report to Sickbay.” The doors slid open and he walked out onto the bridge.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Buffy walked into the sickbay. It had been about two minutes since the last jolt. Given that they hadn’t been blown out of the sky, Janeway must have talked them into a ceasefire. The two security officers nodded at her as she walked up. Somehow Tuvok had found the time to relay his order to them.</p><p>The drone looked almost unrecognisable. Buffy had only seen her from a distance, but she’d seen plenty of drones in the last few days. Other than a few implants on her face and one on her hand, Buffy would never have known that she’d ever been assimilated at all. Her skin wasn’t a chalky, pebbled white. She didn’t have blocky black body armour. In fact, she seemed to be wearing some kind of silvery one-piece that didn’t leave anything to the imagination. She even had hair.</p><p>“How is she?”</p><p>The Doctor looked up. “Out of the woods. I had to remove a large percentage of her implants, but she should be fine now. Of course, I’d recommend weekly check-ups, but-“</p><p>“Weekly check-ups?”</p><p>“Apparently the captain is keen on trying to integrate her into the crew. Awaken her humanity.”</p><p>Buffy blinked. She shouldn’t have been surprised, knowing Janeway. The captain had a compassionate streak a mile wide. “What do you think about that?”</p><p>The Doctor shrugged. “We all deserve the chance to overcome out programming.”</p><p>Buffy opened her mouth to point out that there was a world of difference between a hologram and an ex-Borg, but she shut it again. Assimilation was just a different kind of programming. “When will she wake up?”</p><p>“I kept her sedated for the surgery, but I could wake her up now.”</p><p>“When will she be ready to help us out in Engineering?”</p><p>“As I said, Ensign, I could wake her now,” the Doctor said grumpily.</p><p>Buffy fought down the urge to point out the difference between waking up and wrangling with complicated machinery. The Doctor was tetchy at the best of times, and now definitely wasn’t that. “So you’re telling me that this thing she’s wearing isn’t some kind of hospital gown?”</p><p>The Doctor looked surprised. “Of course not! Hospital gowns haven’t been common practice for a century. Hardly anywhere uses them these days.”</p><p>Right. Buffy was out of date. No surprises there – she tended to avoid doctors whenever she could. “So she’s dressed like she’s ready for a spin on a runway because why?”</p><p>“It’s a dermaplastic garment. Much of her skin was compromised by the implants – it quite literally holds her together.”</p><p>“So she’s wearing a skin-tight suit because she’s got no skin?”</p><p>“Oh, she has skin, but it’s fragile. The suit constantly rejuvenates it.”</p><p>“Couldn’t you have made her something more like a uniform?”</p><p>The Doctor frowned. “As her doctor, I made a medical call.”</p><p>“Sure, sure, I’m just wondering why I have to wear something like this when she gets to dress like a spy out of those old movies that Tom likes.”</p><p>The Doctor decided to ignore that. “Shall I wake her, then?”</p><p>“Go for it.”</p><p>The Doctor picked up a hypospray and pressed it against the drone’s neck. There was a faint hissing sound as it deployed.</p><p>The drone’s eyes slid open. There was the briefest hint of confusion, and then her jaw tightened as she remembered everything that had happened. Buffy was impressed. She hadn’t expected that much control from someone who had only been an individual for less than a day.</p><p>“Wakey wakey!” Buffy said cheerfully. The Doctor rolled his eyes. She ignored him. “Do you have a name?”</p><p>“My designation is Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One.”</p><p>“Yeah, there’s no way that I’m going to remember all of that. How’s Seven of Nine sound? Seven for short?”</p><p>“Your captain made the same decision. It was as inaccurate then as it is now.” Seven’s lip curled. Buffy supposed that the Borg didn’t have to repeat the same thing to different people. Every member of the Collective thought as one.</p><p>“Okay then!” Buffy clapped her hands together. “Are you ready to come and mess around with some machines for a few hours?”</p><p>“If you are asking whether I am prepared to aid your engineers, then yes.”</p><p>Buffy nodded. “You know, I kinda expected you to say no.”</p><p>“What purpose would that serve?”</p><p>“Eh, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”</p><p>Seven sat upright and slid off the table. Buffy blinked. “Prophets, you’re tall.” The drone seemed to be almost ten inches taller than Buffy. </p><p>“Height is irrelevant,” Seven said severely.</p><p>“I’ve been telling people that for years, but it seems to go right over their heads. Ironically.” Buffy looked down, then turned to the Doctor. “You put her in <i>heels</i>?”</p><p>“They are-“</p><p>“You know what, I don’t want to know. I’m just glad that I’ve never ended up on one of your tables. It looks like I’d end up leaving looking a twentieth century model.” Buffy paused. “Not that that’s a bad thing.”</p><p>Seven just stood there, hands behind her back, waiting. It was kind of disturbing. It was like she’d just switched herself off. There was no expression on her face at all – not even disdain. Buffy was used to that sort of thing thanks to Illyria, but seeing it from a living, breathing person was strange. She didn’t like it.</p><p>“Right. I guess we’d better head to Engineering.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>“Hey, B’Elanna. Where’d you want us?”</p><p>“I didn’t know you had a level three-“ B’Elanna began before she looked up from her panel. She scowled when she saw the drone. “Oh. Well, we’re still having trouble with the autonomous regeneration sequencers. Vorik’ll give you a-“</p><p>“I’ll do it, Lieutenant,” Illyria interrupted. “I’ve finished purging the sensors.”</p><p>“Already?”</p><p>“I have some experience in getting sensors to find what I want them to find.”</p><p>Buffy hid a smile. That was an understatement.</p><p>“Fine. You can keep an eye on them.”</p><p>Illyria nodded, and walked off without a word. Seven followed. “I get the feeling that those two are going to get along really well,” Buffy said.</p><p>B’Elanna shot the pair a considering look. “I hope not.”</p><p>“Well, anyway. I’d better go catch them up. See you later.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>Buffy was no engineer. She had no head for mechanics, and centuries of experience hadn’t helped. Everything changed too quickly – once she got something figured out, it was replaced by a newer, better, and above all more complicated model. These days, she learned enough to be able to fly and that was about it. So, even though she was watching Seven and Illyria as they worked, she didn’t really know what she was looking at. They were up to their elbows in wires and flashing lights – it might have been the engineer’s equivalent of a lucky dip for all she knew.</p><p>She could tell that they worked well together, though. It was surprising. Buffy knew that Illyria <i>could</i> work with people – she’d lived in a Romulan research colony for more than two decades – but she didn’t like it. As good as Illyria was at hiding her emotions, her colleagues always got the unconscious impression that they were superfluous and she’d rather be working alone. It made people uncomfortable. Even on a tightly-knit crew like <i>Voyager</i>, it meant that there was always a wall between her and everyone else.</p><p>So it was strange to see that she worked with Seven of Nine as though they were a single entity. They barely said a word to each other, and most of what they said were half-formed sentences that neither of them bothered to finish. It was enough to make Buffy wonder if Illyria had been entirely truthful about what she’d been doing at Wolf 359.</p><p>“Did you find anything?” Illyria said suddenly.</p><p>Buffy started in surprise. “What? Me?”</p><p>“Yes.” Although Illyria didn’t look up from her work and her hands didn’t stop moving, she somehow managed to exude a palpable sense of eye-rolling. </p><p>Buffy looked at Seven. The Borg didn’t seem to be paying attention, and in any case Buffy didn’t think that she’d care even if she was listening. She was the sort of person to brand anything not related to the task at hand as ‘irrelevant’. “No. Did you really expect me to?”</p><p>“No, but it would have made everything easier.”</p><p>“Not like anything’s ever been easy for us,” Buffy said with a shrug. “I floated the idea of having a look at Kes’ medical records. I suspect they’ll be passed around engineering once things have calmed down a bit. If that doesn’t work out, you can probably push for her personal logs. Then you can see if anything doesn’t match up.”</p><p>“Good.” That was as close to a ‘thank you’ as Illyria ever got. “What do you know about this region of space?”</p><p>Buffy began to say that she knew just as much as Illyria did, which was to say nothing at all, when Seven interrupted. “We have assimilated several species from this sector.”</p><p>“Hold up,” Buffy said, “you’re bringing the Borg into this?”</p><p>“She may have information.”</p><p>“What happened to her being a fingernail?”</p><p>Seven looked up at her. She raised one eyebrow a few millimetres. The sense of confusion and indignation that came with it seemed far out of proportion for the size of the movement. “I am not a fingernail. I am <i>Borg</i>.”</p><p>“If she can’t find a way to escape, she’ll try to kill herself,” Illyria remarked conversationally. “We should make use of her while we have a chance.”</p><p>“You don’t know that.”</p><p>“Ensign Illyria is correct,” Seven said, her dry tone perfectly matching Illyria’s. “We cannot survive without the Collective. We <i>will</i> betray you.”</p><p>“You don’t know that either. You think that now, but you’re basically a day old and you’ve spent most of it in ridiculous heels. That’s enough to make anyone turn traitor.”</p><p>“Your attempt at levity is irrelevant. It doesn’t change the facts.”</p><p>Before Buffy could begin to argue, her combadge beeped. “Tuvok to Ensign Summers.”</p><p>“Sir?”</p><p>“Remove Seven of Nine from Engineering and take her to Cargo Bay 2. The aliens that were firing on us, the Nihydron, believed that we were Borg. The captain managed to convince them that we aren’t, but they want to see our engines in order to make sure that their technology is all that we have on board. It seems unlikely that they’ll be pleased to discover a former drone.”</p><p>“Understood.”</p><p>“They’ll be arriving from Transporter Room 3, and they’ll be taking the most direct route to Engineering. Make sure to avoid them.”</p><p>“Got it.” Buffy turned to Seven. “Looks like we’re playing Operation: Keep-away with some aliens. Let’s go.”</p><p>“If I stop working then these systems will begin to degenerate, leading to a cascade that will-“</p><p>“I’ve got it,” Illyria interrupted.</p><p>Seven gave her an appraising look. “Are you certain?”</p><p>“I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t. Now get out.”</p><p>Seven stood and followed Buffy out.</p><p>“So, have you had any run-ins with the Nihydron?”</p><p>“We have assimilated two of Species 10026’s colony worlds in the last five years. 1.1 million joined the Collective.”</p><p>“I meant have <i>you</i> personally met them,” Buffy clarified. “Although if you’re going to tell me gruesome stories about how you assimilated them, I’d rather you didn’t answer.”</p><p>“I have not personally encountered them,” Seven said. There was the barest hitch in her voice on the word ‘I’.</p><p>“Well, let’s see what we can do to keep it that way,” Buffy said. She pointed down the corridor. “This way.”</p><p>“I recall the layout of your ship.”</p><p>“Of course you do. That doesn’t change the fact that, if we want to avoid the Nihydron, we have to go that way.”</p><p>“I do not wish to avoid them.”</p><p>Buffy swung around. “You what?”</p><p>Seven didn’t reply. Instead one hand shot out towards Buffy’s throat, while the other reached down to try and grab the phaser at her waist.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter Four</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Buffy’s hand snapped up to grab Seven’s before it could close around her throat. She could feel the ex-drone straining – she was strong, but she wasn’t a Slayer. Seven’s other hand reached Buffy’s phaser, but Buffy covered it with her free hand before she was able to draw it. Buffy slid one foot backwards and turned to one side, forcing Seven to lean across her. Seven was taller than her, and she’d already had to reach downwards to try and go for the phaser, so that forced her to overextend herself and ruin her balance. Seven took a step forward in an attempt to stay on her feet and get enough leverage to pull away, but Buffy aimed a low kick to the side of her ankle as she moved. She didn’t put much force into it, but then she didn’t really need to. Seven was already in an awkward position and the fact that she was wearing heels didn’t help. She staggered and almost fell, but before she could right herself Buffy dipped her shoulder and slammed it into Seven’s chest, bearing her to the ground.</p><p>One of Seven’s arms was trapped beneath Buffy’s legs, and Buffy forced the other down by her side. Seven opened her mouth – they weren’t far from the route the Nihydron would be taking to Engineering. If she made enough noise they might ask what’s going on, which would lead to Seven’s discovery. She closed it again when Buffy levelled the phaser at her head. “Normally I’m against shooting someone who’s just come out of surgery,” Buffy said, “but for you I think I’ll make an exception. If you make a peep I’ll have you unconscious and out of here so quickly that the Nihydron’ll never know what happened.” Buffy grinned. “I guess you could say that resistance is futile.”</p><p>Seven looked at her for a long moment, and then stopped struggling.</p><p>Buffy didn’t let her up. Although they were close to the route from Transporter Bay 2 to Engineering, this corridor wasn’t directly on it. If she needed to, she could stay here in the hall until she was sure they’d gone. “I thought the Borg were supposed to be patient.”</p><p>Seven just looked up at her coolly. </p><p>“You can answer that, if you’re quiet.”</p><p>“I told you that I would betray you.”</p><p>“I don’t think you can betray someone if you just come right out and tell them that’s what you’re going to do. Betraying kind of involves being on our side to begin with.”</p><p>“Semantics are irrelevant.”</p><p>“Yeah, that sounds like someone who knows they’re wrong to me. See, the logical thing would be to wait, spend some time not being a backstabbing backstabber, and then make with the betrayal.”</p><p>Seven’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You are small.”</p><p>“What happened to height being irrelevant?”</p><p>“To pretend to be like you is offensive. To act in such a way as to gain your trust is intolerable. I am Borg. I will re-join the Collective or I will die. I’m not human. I will not be human.”</p><p>“Okay,” Buffy said slowly. “Let me put it this way. Which outcome do you prefer?”</p><p>Seven frowned. “I do not understand.”</p><p>“What’s better? Borging it up, or the whole dying thing?”</p><p>“It is better to be Borg than to not be Borg.”</p><p>“Right. So what you should be doing is trying to find a way off the ship, or to get us all assimilated. You haven’t even been an individual for a day, yet, and you’re already trying to get yourself killed. Seems like you’ve given up on re-joining the Collective.” Buffy shrugged. “Guess that makes sense. Lots of people would rather step out of an airlock or eat leola root stew than be assimilated.”</p><p>“You are suggesting that there is a flaw in my logic?” Only the barest change in Seven’s intonation indicated that it was a question.</p><p>“I’m not <i>suggesting</i> anything. I’m telling you that you’ve got some wacky priorities.”</p><p>“I do not understand. It is in your own self-interest for you to let me die. I am a threat to this ship.”</p><p>“Yeah, you’re super-threatening when you’re pinned to the ground,” Buffy said lightly. Then her expression turned serious. “Listen. I could say that the captain wants to make a project out of you and I’m just following her orders, or that death-by-Nihydron would probably end up getting the rest of us killed too. Truth is, I’m not really bothered by that. We’ve gotten out of worse scrapes before, and blindly following orders is totally not me. The important thing is, um… well, the first step is figuring out that you want to live. Once you’ve got that, then you can work out what you want to live for. Whether that’s being Borg or being crew.” Buffy’s voice was low and quiet. “’Cause let me tell you, there’s nothing worse than wanting to die and not being able to.”</p><p>Seven appeared to give that some thought. “Your reasoning is acceptable.”</p><p>“Well, whoopee,” Buffy said drily. “Anyway, the Nihydron will have made it to Engineering by now. Let’s get you to Cargo Bay 2. Just so you know, the chance of contacting the Borg between here and there is exactly zilch, so you’d better not try any funny business.”</p><p>“I will comply.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>Cargo Bay 2 looked more like a Borg cube than a room on <i>Voyager</i> had any right to. Most of the machines in it had been disconnected from the rest of the ship, making them look more like macabre sculptures than anything else. Once things had calmed down a bit, they’d probably be scrapped for parts. There was a single functioning Borg alcove left. Seven stood in it, perfectly still. Ominous green lightning danced behind her head. </p><p>Buffy sat on the floor with her back against the wall, her chin resting on knees drawn tightly into her chest. She thought, if she thought anything at all, about the difference between Seven and Illyria. A drone regenerating in an alcove was as close as the Borg ever got to sleeping – Seven’s eyes were closed and she didn’t seem to be aware of her surroundings at all. Illyria, on the other hand, never slept at all. She certainly didn’t close her eyes. Illyria barely even blinked, only doing so in order to convince people that she was human.</p><p>But it didn’t seem as though Seven was asleep. Buffy had spent enough time prowling around at night to see plenty of people sleeping, and Seven didn’t feel like that. She seemed like she was on the verge of action, for all that she had her eyes closed. It was the same with Illyria. The Old One was more than capable of being motionless for years – Buffy knew that from experience – but only a fool would mistake her for a statue. There was always the sense that she was a coiled spring.</p><p>Mostly, though, Buffy didn’t think about anything at all. She’d perfected the art of sleeping with her eyes open a long time ago. Her body was alert, but her mind was empty.</p><p>It snapped back to wakefulness when the door slid open and Janeway walked in. The captain gestured for Buffy to stay where she was, but Buffy had already leapt to her feet. “How is she?” Janeway said, examining Seven.</p><p>“Looks like she’s out like a light. I guess being a person really takes it out of you.”</p><p>“She give you any trouble?”</p><p>“She tried to get to the Nihydron when they visited,” Buffy admitted. “Suicide attempt. I knocked her down and sat on her until they made it to Engineering.”</p><p>“Good,” Janeway said with a nod. She turned to Buffy. “What do you think of her?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “She is Borg.”</p><p>Janeway draped herself over a nearby table, cupped her face in one hand and looked at Buffy as she waited for her to continue.</p><p>“Is there something else I should say? It’d be pretty hard to find a Borgier Borg than her.”</p><p>“Since she left the Collective, you’ve spent more time with her than anyone else,” Janeway said. “Except for Harry.”</p><p>Buffy winced. “Tuvok told me that she knocked him out.”</p><p>“Mhm. Do you think she’ll do something like that again?”</p><p>“She seems dead set on re-joining the Collective. And I do mean that with all the clever implications,” Buffy said. “That said, she doesn’t really seem to grasp the concept of disobedience. She could’ve refused to help in Engineering. I would have, if I were her. She didn’t even seem to realise that not helping us was even an option.”</p><p>“So what do you suggest I do?”</p><p>“You’re the captain.”</p><p>Janeway grimaced. “That’s not exactly helpful. On the one hand, I’ve got a crew fresh from a harrowing encounter in the heart of Borg space. Half of them lost friends at Wolf 359. On the other, I’ve got an ex-Borg who wants assimilation or death. There have been mutinies over less.”</p><p>Buffy shook her head. “You don’t understand. You’re the captain. She’ll do what you say. She can’t not. Well, unless there’s a chance that she’ll get to re-join the Collective. I think I talked her out self-destruction.”</p><p>Janeway looked surprised. “How’d you manage that?”</p><p>“She’d rather be a drone than die. She can’t do both, so I pointed out that the logical thing would be to try to be re-assimilated until she gets to the point where that’s impossible.” Technically not true – she’d definitely implied that, and Seven was smart enough to pick that up, but that hadn’t been the main thrust of what she’d said.</p><p>“Interesting.”</p><p>“Anyway, I don’t think there’ll be a mutiny over her. Everyone I’ve spoken to thinks that she’ll die before she gets to cause too much trouble. Including Seven.”</p><p>“I see.” Janeway tilted her head to look at Seven. “You should get some rest, Ensign. It’s been a long few days.”</p><p>Buffy shook her head. “I’ve got a sneaking feeling that if I go off duty we’ll end up in a temporal disturbance or something and I’ll get called back in. Either that or the Nihydron will decide they don’t like us and they’ll blow us to smithereens.”</p><p>Janeway could recognise a tacit request for information when she heard one. “They’re escorting us to one of their nearby colonies. We need to pick up some supplies – I <i>know</i> B’Elanna will need some new equipment. We’re in the process of negotiating with them. They want everything we’ve got on the Borg, along with all their technology. I’m not sure that’s exactly safe. There’s a chance they’ll activate something they shouldn’t and the Borg will come looking. Plus some of our systems actually work better with the Borg improvements.” She didn’t say that they’d be <i>very</i> interested in an ex-drone. She didn’t have to. “They want help working on their prototype modulating phaser pulse. They want allies. The Borg scare them. They’ve got no reason to try and stab us in the back.”</p><p>Buffy thought about that for a moment. That was the thing about betrayal. It was generally only effective if you couldn’t see it coming. She didn’t know much about the Nihydron – she’d never even seen one – but she did know that people who were scared weren’t usually inclined to trust anyone. Especially not when it came to a ship that looked like it was half-assimilated.</p><p>Still. If anyone was capable of making allies out of people who’d been firing on them a few hours ago, it was Janeway. </p><p>“Get some rest,” Janeway repeated. “That’s an order.”</p><p>“You don’t want me to stay on baby-sitting duty?”</p><p>Janeway glared at her. Buffy grinned. “You got it, ma’am.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>Buffy didn’t head straight to her room. There were still a couple of things that she wanted to do before she went to sleep. Besides, she hadn’t been joking. She just knew that the moment her head hit the pillow, something would happen and she’d have to get up again. While she’d gone longer than four days without sleep before, it was definitely enough to make her a little frayed around the edges. If she was going to sleep, she actually wanted to <i>sleep</i>.</p><p>Instead, she headed to the mess hall. Not because she needed something to eat – and even if she did, she had enough replicator rations to mean that she didn’t have to endure whatever concoction Neelix had cooked up. No. There were a couple of people that she wanted to talk to.</p><p>Sure enough, Tom and B’Elanna were sitting at a table. They were poring over a PADD, plates of food largely untouched in front of them. Buffy could smell the rocket fuel that Neelix used as a coffee substitute from where she stood. She moved over to them. “Hey, mind if I join you?”</p><p>B’Elanna looked up and gave her a tired smile. “Sure, Buffy. Have a seat.”</p><p>“I ran your idea past the Doc,” Tom said, tapping the PADD in front of him. “If there’s something in here that’ll let someone throw a starship at faster-than-warp speeds, we haven’t found it yet.”</p><p>“I wasn’t actually here to ask you about that. I hear we’re heading to a Nihydron colony.”</p><p>“Uh huh. The crew could do with some shore leave. Plus we need supplies, not to mention enough spare parts to fill a couple of shuttles,” B’Elanna said. She shrugged. “You know what they say – an engineer’s day is never done.”</p><p>“Is that what they say?” Tom asked. “I don’t think that’s how that goes.”</p><p>B’Elanna poked him in the arm. Tom winced theatrically. “All you’ve got to do is make sure we don’t crash into any asteroids. You’re practically a glorified auto-pilot.”</p><p>“Hey! An auto-pilot and an actual pilot are-“</p><p>“As cute as your bickering is, I wanted to ask you a favour,” Buffy interrupted. “You’re going to need to send someone to pick up those spare parts, yeah?”</p><p>B’Elanna nodded. “I was going to go.”</p><p>“It’s the closest thing she gets to shore leave. Engineers work so much more than we lowly mortals.”</p><p>B’Elanna glared at him before turning back to Buffy. “Why d’you ask?”</p><p>“I was wondering if you’d lend me Illyria for the trip.”</p><p>“Again, why?” B’Elanna said, sounding surprised. “I don’t think Illyria even knows what shore leave is. She’s practically a machine.”</p><p>“That’s putting it mildly,” Tom added. “She’s an iceberg in a Starfleet uniform.”</p><p>“You’re just saying that because she turned you down,” B’Elanna said, poking Tom again.</p><p>“That’s not fair. Lots of people turned me down and I don’t think they’re icebergs.”</p><p>“As much fun as it is talking about all the times that Tom’s struck out, I want to get Illyria away from Seven. Chances are they’ll be working together a fair bit, at least until you’ve stripped out all the Borg gunk fouling the engines. I don’t think them being close is a good idea.”</p><p>“As I said, Illyria’s practically a machine. She turns up for her shift the <i>second</i> it starts. She’s more professional than a Vulcan.” B’Elanna drummed her fingers on the table. “She’s a hell of a lot more professional than Vorik. I know you two are friends, but I don’t see why you’re worried. I think Illyria would keep her cool even if Seven was a Cardassian war criminal.”</p><p>“She was at Wolf 359.”</p><p>B’Elanna’s eyes widened. “That explains a few things.”</p><p>“Does it?” Tom asked. “I thought she was Maquis. What was she doing at Wolf 359?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “She was Starfleet at the time. Not like she’s the only one around here who decided to cut ties and do a little guerrilla warfare.”</p><p>“Fine,” B’Elanna said. “You can take Illyria with you.”</p><p>“Thanks. Well, I’ll leave you to your bickering.”</p><p>“We don’t <i>bicker</i>.”</p><p>“Sure you don’t,” Buffy said with a grin before she got up and walked away.</p><p>~*~</p><p>She hadn’t lied, exactly. She didn’t want Illyria and Seven spending too much time together. The way they’d worked together had made Buffy uncomfortable. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Illyria. In fact, she was the person on the ship that Buffy trusted above all others – but, out of the whole crew, she was also the most likely to have a hidden agenda. Buffy knew they were secretly hunting someone breaking time, but that didn’t mean that that was all Illyria was after. The revelation that Illyria had been at Wolf 359 and the way she seemed so eerily in sync with Seven made Buffy suspicious.</p><p>But that wasn’t the only reason that she wanted Illyria off the ship. They were roughly in the region of space where Illyria had said that time was breaking. If anyone knew anything about that, they wouldn’t find out if Illyria was stuck in Engineering. She’d seen what had happened to Illyria when Kes had left the ship. If something like happened when she was on duty – if someone saw her – then it could be really bad. They had a mystery, and they needed to solve it.</p><p>Well. There was that, and Buffy <i>did</i> need a holiday. It probably wouldn’t be the best shore leave she’d ever had, but shore leave was shore leave.</p><p>Buffy went to bed. To her surprise, when she woke up it was the morning, and there’d been no red alerts during the night. Through her window, she could see a planet.</p><p>She stretched. “Well, gang,” Buffy muttered, “it’s time to look for clues!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>That morning there was a briefing for those who had been granted shore leave or had errands to run on the planet’s surface. Janeway gave her standard speech, telling the crew that they were supposed to represent Federation ideals and not get into trouble.</p><p>There was also a representative from the Nihydron. She was a young woman, with a thin, bony ridge that ran from her hairline to the tip of her nose. She wore a dark blue uniform that looked more than a little military. She introduced herself as Commissioner Nythea. She told the crew that the planet, Nikrenna, was a trading outpost on the edge of Nihydron space. They had a small colony of ten thousand, most of whom were traders and merchants from other species who had made a home there. She issued maps and told everyone that they had free range of the city with the exception of a small military enclave in the Northern Quarter. That, apparently, was off-limits. She didn’t elaborate on what would happen if anyone was caught trespassing. Her tone told them enough.</p><p>Cynically, Buffy thought that the Nihydron were being a bit too obvious. They were holding this world up as a shining example of how welcoming and multicultural they were – although Nythea didn’t exactly say that all of this was in danger from the Borg, she very <i>loudly</i> didn’t say it. On top of that, Buffy couldn’t help but wonder if a crewman or two might not ‘accidentally’ end up in the military enclave if Janeway didn’t give the Nihydron what they wanted. Something like that would make for a powerful bargaining chip to hold over the captain’s head.</p><p>Not that she could do much about that. She could make sure that no Nihydron goons jumped her, but she couldn’t shepherd dozens of crewmembers on shore leave. </p><p>She’d been allocated a shuttle – Illyria needed enough equipment that a transporter wouldn’t be practical. The upside of that was that Illyria wouldn’t be transported – while she could fool medical scans, a machine that broke her down on an atomic level and then put her back together again would be a bit more difficult to trick. The downside was that they had to share with Neelix.</p><p>Buffy had nothing against Neelix. Although he was a terrible cook, he was a nice guy. He just had a tendency to talk a lot, and once he had you it was difficult to get away. Buffy liked a good gossip as much as the next person, but even she had limits.</p><p>Fortunately, he seemed intent on monopolising Illyria. Because she never needed to eat, Illyria rarely ventured into Neelix’s domain in the mess hall, and she <i>definitely</i> never needed a morale officer, this was the first time Neelix had had a chance to speak with her.</p><p>“Hello!” Neelix said cheerfully. “It’s Ensign Illyria, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Correct.” Illyria looked at him as though he was something that she’d scraped from the bottom of her shoe. Which was to say, she looked at him in the same way that she looked at almost everyone.</p><p>Neelix was undeterred. “I bet you’re keen to get some time off the ship. Been a really busy few days, hasn’t it? Non-stop Borg action!”</p><p>“Yes.” </p><p> “What d’you think of our resident drone? I hear you worked with her in Engineering. I guess that was difficult for you, what with your past in Wolf 359 and everything?”</p><p>Buffy didn’t need to look away from the shuttle controls to know that Illyria was staring at her. She could feel her gaze boring into the back of her head. She winced. She hadn’t expected that information to get around <i>that</i> fast.</p><p>“Indeed,” Illyria said coolly.</p><p>Neelix began to ask exactly what she meant by that when Buffy decided that it would probably be a good idea if she cauterised that line of enquiry. “A few years ago, back in the Alpha Quadrant, I met a Bajoran mystic who used to fly shuttles in the Valo system. There was this question he used to ask everyone who flew with him. Really stuck in my head.”</p><p>“What was it?” Neelix asked curiously.</p><p>“’Where does the sky begin?’”</p><p>“The Kármán line for this planet begins at 96 kilometres,” Illyria said matter-of-factly. She was clearly reading the data from the panel next to Buffy.</p><p>“So you’re saying that anything flying lower than that isn’t in the sky? Where are we when we pass that line?”</p><p>“The ‘sky’ is an arbitrary designation.”</p><p>Buffy sighed. “Yeah, he said that a lot of people said that.”</p><p>“Back home, we’d say that the sky begins at tops of the trees of the Great Forest,” Neelix volunteered.</p><p>“Good answer.”</p><p>“Did your mystic ever give you a satisfactory response?” Illyria asked.</p><p>“No. No, he never did.” Cardassians had scooped him up on suspicion of being a Maquis sympathiser. “Anyway, we’re just crossing the Kármán line now. We’ll be landing in two minutes, whether we’re flying through the sky right now or not.”</p><p>Landing was uneventful. Neelix promptly left to go and find the food market.</p><p>“Was it necessary to inform the crew that I was at Wolf 359?” Illyria asked, the moment that he’d gone.</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “I needed to get you off the ship. Given that you’ve never had shore leave in your life, it seemed like the easiest way to get B’Elanna to give up her holiday from Engineering.”</p><p>“I have many errands to run. The chances that I’ll have any opportunities to enquire about temporal anomalies is small,” Illyria said, correctly guessing at least one of the reasons that Buffy had arranged for her to be here. “If you are worried about the Nihydron, it would have been better if I’d remained on the ship. That would reduce the chance of both of us being compromised.”</p><p>“Yeah, you’ve said that enough over the centuries,” Buffy said drily. “I don’t think they’ll try anything just yet. They’d prefer allies over enemies. More flies with honey and all that.”</p><p>“Very well. I will meet you here in six hours. If I’m not here, then-“</p><p>“Do <i>not</i> do the living will thing, Blue, I swear.”</p><p>“-then contact me. I will most likely have been detained by a merchant.”</p><p>“Oh. Fine. Six hours it is.” There were enough space-farers here that there was a chance that at least one of them would have heard about someone breaking time. It might be a vanishingly small chance, but it was all she had. For six hours she could ask questions. She turned to leave.</p><p>“Buffy.”</p><p>Buffy froze. She hadn’t liked that tone. She didn’t turn around. “What?”</p><p>Illyria’s voice was quiet. There was a sense that her words were being slowly pulled out of some well deep inside her. The Old One clearly didn’t want to speak. “There is a chance that I won’t survive future events.”</p><p>Everything stopped. The wind, the voices around her, the sound of shuttles overhead. Everything faded away. There was only words, and the feeling that there were shards of ice where her organs should be. She turned slowly. When she spoke, her voice was light. It suggested that she’d misheard, although they both knew she hadn’t. “What?”</p><p>“When Kes left the ship and history changed…” Illyria paused briefly. Buffy suspected that, if she’d had lungs, she’d take a deep breath. “It affected me more than I had anticipated. Now that we are closer to the source of the alterations, it’s possible that I won’t survive another.”</p><p>“You’ve survived time stuff before. We went back to the 20th century!” Buffy gave a weak smile. “You coped with that better than I did. You practically had to sit on me to stop me leaving the ship.”</p><p>“Travelling through something is different to breaking it,” Illyria said simply.</p><p>“Right.” Buffy nodded once, sharply. “Right. Well, we’d better figure out who’s doing it before they do it again then, yeah?”</p><p>Illyria looked at her for a long moment before nodding.</p><p>“Right then!” Buffy clapped her hands together. “See you here in six hours.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>Buffy found out a lot during those six hours. People always wanted to talk to a pretty blonde. Even if they were from a species that didn’t have blondes. Or hair, for that matter.</p><p>She found out a lot of things. She heard stories about some kind of gigantic telepathic creature that lured in ships and then devoured them whole. She heard about a region of space that appeared and disappeared seemingly at random. The laws of physics didn’t apply inside it. Everything was chaos. She even heard stories about a nightmarish race whose ships appeared seemingly from nowhere and destroyed entire worlds before vanishing as suddenly as they’d arrived. Buffy had been interested in that until she heard that they hadn’t been seen for more than five hundred years.</p><p>She heard a lot of things, but she didn’t find what she was looking for.</p><p>She was a little bit late when she headed back. There were two reasons for that. The first, and the only one that she’d admit to, was that she’d hoped that if just spent another five, ten, thirty minutes, then she’d find what she needed. Those minutes added up.</p><p>The second was because she wasn’t sure how she’d react to Illyria. The other woman had told her that there was a chance she might die, and in response Buffy had practically run away. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if that was no longer an option. Illyria had been a constant in her life for centuries. She didn’t know what she’d do if that changed.</p><p>(Deep down, she did. She remembered Danny’s mirthless smile. Time was breaking. She would, too.)</p><p>To her overwhelming lack of surprise, Illyria was there waiting for her. When Illyria said that she’d be somewhere at a certain time, she would be there to the very second. If she was bothered by their earlier conversation, she gave no sign of it. Buffy wasn’t surprised by that, either.</p><p>“Did you find anything?” Illyria asked without preamble.</p><p>“Lots of things,” Buffy replied, “but basically nothing.”</p><p>Illyria nodded, as though she hadn’t expected anything more. Most likely she hadn’t. “I understand that there’s some kind of cultural centre in the Eastern Quarter. They have the history of the Nihydron going back for centuries.”</p><p>“Seems a little fancy to have a museum on a border world,” Buffy pointed out.</p><p>“The Nihydron are proud of what they’ve built. They want to share it with everyone.”</p><p>“Ah. They’re that sort.”</p><p>“Indeed.”</p><p>“Well, I guess it’s worth a look,” Buffy said with a shrug. “I guess you’ve found all the stuff that B’Elanna wanted you to pick up.”</p><p>“I have. The trip was quite productive.”</p><p>“Good, good. I guess B’Elanna will have you busy setting it all up, so we should make the most of this trip before we-“ Buffy realised that Illyria wasn’t with her. “Blue?”</p><p>She looked around to see that Illyria had stopped dead in the middle of the street behind her. She wasn’t only person who saw her – plenty of others were shooting her odd looks, clearly wondering what she was doing. Illyria didn’t seem to notice them. Her head was craned upwards, staring at the sky. Buffy followed her gaze, and didn't see anything more than a handful of clouds. “What’re we looking at?”</p><p>“It’s happening again.” Illyria’s voice was distant. She didn’t seem to be aware that she was even speaking. “It’s so loud, now.”</p><p>Buffy’s heart jumped. “Time’s changing again?”</p><p>“Ye<i>ssss</i>,” Illyria hissed through gritted teeth. She doubled over, clutching at her ears. “Can’t you hear it? Why aren’t you deafened? Why aren’t you,” a tremor ran throughout her body, “<i>dead</i>?”</p><p>“What should I do?” Buffy moved forwards to put a hand on Illyria’s shoulder and guide her away so that, at the very least, she didn’t have to go through this in public. Before she got a chance, though, Illyria leapt away from her. Her eyes were very wide, her pupils were jagged and torn, and her irises were an inhuman icy blue. </p><p>“<i>Nothing</i>,” Illyria spat. Another tremor ran through her. This time, her body shifted and shimmered like fish scales underwater. Buffy frowned. A shapeshifter having a seizure could be messy. </p><p>Janeway’s voice came through Buffy’s combadge. “Crew, this is the captain. We’re reading a massive spatial distortion heading towards us. We can’t outrun it, but hopefully our shields can help us weather the storm. We’ll beam you aboard in waves. Standby.”</p><p>With nothing else to do but wait, Buffy looked up at the sky. She could see something. A pinprick in the sky, as bright as the sun. It was red – not like a red star, but red like blood and torn muscles. It grew, gradually spreading outwards. At first Buffy thought that it was moving slowly until her perspective changed in a moment of dizzying vertigo, and she realised that it was moving incredibly quickly but covering such vast distances that she couldn’t really comprehend what she was seeing.</p><p>Illyria convulsed, slapping at her chest. Her hand was a claw. Her fingers were bent at unnatural angles. “Beam me to engineering. I can stop it. I can stop it.” Her voice was a pained whisper.</p><p>Buffy tapped her combadge. “Ensign Summers to Transporter Room. Two to beam directly to engineering. Illyria says she can stop the distortion.” At least, she hoped that was what Illyria meant.</p><p>Harry Kim’s voice. “Okay. We’re locking on. One second.”</p><p>With a musical chime, the pair dissolved into light. The sky split open above them with a sound like a single thunderous word, too loud to be understood.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter Six</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>B’Elanna was already talking before they fully materialised. “-then, let’s see what you’ve…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed Illyria. She was hunched over, and she was shaking almost constantly. Occasionally her limbs would twitch and jump as though an electric current was running through them. “What’s wrong with her?”</p><p>“You know that spatial distortion that’s heading towards us?”</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“I think she’s allergic to it.”</p><p>B’Elanna crossed her arms. “You think she’s allergic to a <i>spatial distortion</i>?”</p><p>“Uh huh.”</p><p>“Buffy?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“You’re a terrible liar.”</p><p>“Oh sure, like that’s so much more unbelievable than Kes dissolving into energy and throwing us across the quadrant.”</p><p>“Fair point,” B’Elanna conceded grudgingly. “Still, she looks like she should be in Sickbay.”</p><p>“Shut up,” Illyria growled. “All your talking. Words. Empty air. All your words and heartbeats and breath. All this noise and you still want to talk.”</p><p>“Yeah, definitely Sickbay.”</p><p>“B’Elanna, how long is it until the distortion hits us?”</p><p>“Two minutes,” Illyria and B’Elanna said at the same time. B’Elanna’s eyes narrowed. “How did you-“</p><p>“Am I right in thinking that we don’t stand a chance in hell of surviving it?”</p><p>B’Elanna exhaled noisily. “We don’t know what it is – Illyria might have cleaned all the Borg tech out of our sensors, but it’s not like we’ve got a dedicated astrometrics lab to process the data. But if it’s even half as dangerous as it looks – yeah, we’ll be torn to shreds.”</p><p>“Then it’s not going to matter if she’s in Sickbay or if she’s here, is it?”</p><p>“I’m not going to let someone having a seizure-“</p><p>Illyria leapt forward and shoved B’Elanna out of the way. It wasn’t the most coordinated of movements. It looked more like a long, drawn out stumble that never quite resulted in Illyria falling. When she reached out to push B’Elanna, Illyria’s arm shook and her hand was clenched into a fist so tight that her knuckles looked like they were about to burst through her skin. Even so, there was enough force behind it to send B’Elanna staggering away. Illyria hurtled towards a console. The fact that there was already an engineer there didn’t seem to bother her. She slammed into him like a juggernaut, knocking him off his feet. Her fingers began to dance over the keys.</p><p>Even from this distance, Buffy could tell that there was something wrong. This wasn’t effortless and fluid, as it had been when she’d been working with Seven. Even taking into account the constant tremors running through her body, Illyria’s movements were erratic. </p><p>“What are you doing?” B’Elanna exclaimed, darting forward to pull Illyria away.</p><p>Buffy got in her way. “Let her work.”</p><p>“She’s not even working on the shields! She’s doing something with our communications array.”</p><p>“Listen, we’ve got about a minute-“</p><p>“Forty-eight seconds,” Illyria muttered without looking up.  </p><p>“-before whatever that thing is hits us. You don’t know what will happen. You don’t even know what it <i>is</i>. But Illyria says she does. She says she can save us. Given that we’re totally in a world of trouble if she’s wrong <i>anyway</i>, why not let her get on with it?”</p><p>“Not enough time!” Illyria said. “It’s so loud!”</p><p>B’Elanna tilted her head to one side, looking over Buffy’s shoulder at Illyria’s console. “Huh. That’s – I’ve never seen – where’d you learn to do that? You’re sending a pulse into subspace to phase-shift us into an isolation field. That might work.” </p><p>“I beat astronauts,” Illyria said darkly. “I always beat astronauts.”</p><p>B’Elanna moved over to a separate console. “Yes, there’s the synchronic distortion.” She frowned. “But it’s only a .001% displacement. That’s not enough, we need at least .003. The distortion’s going to hit us in-“</p><p>Illyria bent backwards at the waist until her back was parallel with the floor. At the same time the ship jolted as though something had hit it. Illyria tensed, the tendons in her neck standing out like ropes. They thickened and widened, forming a kind of cobra-like hood like a Cardassian before fading away again. Although Buffy had never seen Illyria sweat, and she had no reason to believe that the Old One even could, her skin was nevertheless glistening. Her eyes were wide and staring blankly at the ceiling. Everything about her screamed <i>tension</i> - if she’d been human, Buffy was sure that her muscles would have snapped under the strain.</p><p>The ship juddered and groaned. For a long moment Buffy thought that it was going to break apart, but the moment passed and everything was calm.</p><p>Illyria smiled beatifically at nothing at all, and toppled over like a felled tree.</p><p>B’Elanna tapped her combadge. “Torres to Sickbay.” She looked over at Buffy. “Got a patient with a bad case of being allergic to spatial distortions.”</p><p>Buffy shrugged sheepishly.</p><p>~*~</p><p>“Okay then,” Janeway said, a little while later. “Would anyone like to tell me exactly what happened?”</p><p>“Whatever it was, would you mind discussing it somewhere else?” The Doctor said. “This is a sickbay, not a ready room. I have patients to treat.”</p><p>“It seems that the spatial distortion was caused by a massive amount of temporal energy,” Harry said, ignoring the Doctor entirely. “In essence, it was some kind of gigantic shockwave. Illyria managed to shield us from the brunt of it by stimulating subspace, creating an isolation field. If she’d had more time, we probably would have been out of phase entirely and the shockwave would have passed us by.”</p><p>“An isolation field?” Chakotay asked.</p><p>“She used our communications array to fire a pulse into a local region of subspace,” B’Elanna answered. “Fried our long range communications to do it. Basically, she put us in a subspace bubble. Or she would have done, if she’d had more time. The shockwave hit us before we fully shifted phase.”</p><p>“Unfortunately, there seem to be a few… issues. We’re not sure if they’re due to the shockwave, our partial transition into subspace, or a combination of the two,” Tom said.</p><p>“Issues?” Janeway said sharply. “What kind of issues?”</p><p>“For one thing, I’ve had more than thirty cases of space sickness in the past half-hour,” the Doctor said. “Which is not being helped by the fact that you’re using Sickbay as a war room, I might add.”</p><p>“Besides the structural damage from the shockwave – most of which is pretty minor – we’ve had some… strange things happening,” Harry said. “I found a log entry I made… or will have made on Stardate 52143.6.”</p><p>“That’s almost a year from now,” Janeway said with a frown. “What does it say?”</p><p>“I don’t know.” Harry seemed a bit embarrassed. “I haven’t listened to it.”</p><p>“What do you mean, you didn’t listen to it?” Tom said incredulously. “Think about what it might say!”</p><p>“Not listening is the logical course of action,” Tuvok said gravely. “Knowledge of the future could cause a paradox.”</p><p>“For all we know, the temporal energy that caused the shockwave was because Harry listened the message. Maybe him <i>not</i> listening to it would cause a paradox,” Tom pointed out.</p><p>Janeway groaned. “Temporal physics always gives me a headache. Spare me the hypotheticals. Harry, delete the log entry.”</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.”</p><p>“So, what else has happened?”</p><p>“We found this in the mess hall,” Tom said. He held up a ping pong ball.</p><p>“That’s a ping pong ball.” Janeway scrubbed her hand over her face. “Isn’t it?”</p><p>“It <i>is</i> a ping pong ball,” Tom confirmed, “but it’s a ping pong ball with a chroniton flux of .3.”</p><p>“Which means?”</p><p>“It’s a ping pong ball from the future.”</p><p>“<i>Wonderful</i>.”</p><p>“There’s plenty of other weird things, Captain,” Harry said. “There’s a log of a message sent to Tom by someone called Linnis, for example. Logs indicate it was a ship-to-ship communication, but we’ve got no records of there ever being someone by that name on board.” </p><p>B’Elanna spun around to face Tom. “Who’s Linnis?”</p><p>“How am I supposed to know? She doesn’t even exist!”</p><p>“She seemed to think that you’re her father,” Harry said, trying to keep a straight face. “Congratulations?” Next to him, Chakotay turned away and covered his mouth with one hand.</p><p>“Okay,” Janeway said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “We’ve got messages from the future – not to mention a ping pong ball – and a message from someone who doesn’t even seem to exist but seems to be intimately related to Tom. Do we have any idea <i>why</i>?”</p><p>Buffy cleared her throat. She’d been keeping deliberately quiet. She wasn’t part of the senior crew – the only reason that she was here at all was because Illyria was currently lying unconscious on a bed a few feet away. She couldn’t answer any questions, so Buffy was the next best thing. “Someone’s breaking time.”</p><p>Janeway’s eyebrows shot up. “Explain.”</p><p>“Illyria’s known about it for years. She was a researcher, back in the Alpha Quadrant. She picked up some funky readings and figured out that someone in the Delta Quadrant was behind it. She figured there wasn’t much she could do about it, so she thought ‘Hey, I’ve finished my project, let’s quit and stick it to the Cardassians’. She was with the Maquis for about five minutes before we got pulled way out here. It’s in her file.” Technically, almost all of that was true. The only lie was that Illyria had thought that the temporal alterations were too far away for her to do anything about them.</p><p>“Chakotay?” Janeway said grimly. “Is this true?”</p><p>“I knew she was in research before she joined the Maquis. In all honestly, <i>what</i> she was researching was way over my head. Plus, once we ended up in the other end of the galaxy it just didn’t seem to matter anymore.”</p><p>“She’s definitely got the know-how, Captain,” B’Elanna said. “She’s the reason we even detected the distortion at all, and I’ve never seen anything like that trick she pulled with the isolation field.”</p><p>“Why wasn’t I told about this?”</p><p>“Until yesterday, we were 10,000 light years away. Something that we <i>might</i> have run into a decade down the line didn’t seem important when we were busy wrangling with the Borg,” Buffy said.</p><p>Janeway glared at her for a moment before softening. “Fair enough.”</p><p>“Still,” B’Elanna said, crossing her arms, “it seems like a bit too much of a coincidence that the <i>one</i> person who knew that there was someone out there breaking time,” she shook her head, apparently not quite able to believe what she’d just said, “is the <i>only</i> person to be affected like this.”</p><p>“Ah!” The Doctor exclaimed, holding up a hand. He looked at B’Elanna and Buffy. “While I’ve treated people with everything from macroviruses to acute cases of Needing To Get Away From Lieutenant Paris, it’s safe to say that I still haven’t seen anyone who’s allergic to spatial distortions. The answer is far simpler. It seems like the ensign was suffering from PSH.” </p><p>“Plurisubharmonic functions?” B’Elanna said. She smirked. “What, did she come down with a bad case of complex analysis?”</p><p>“No, no. Paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity. She has all of the symptoms. It’s fairly common amongst people who have recently suffered brain trauma. I’d guess that she hit her head at some point recently. Kes moving the ship would be the most likely candidate – Sickbay was full of people with bumps and bruises. Fortunately, it looks like she’ll make a complete recovery.”</p><p>“And symptoms include growing neck ridges like a Cardassian, do they? Not to mention she bowled over Mulchaey as though he was nothing.”</p><p>The Doctor frowned. “Yes, I did have to treat him for a couple of cracked ribs. But given everything else going on at the time, it doesn’t seem so terribly unusual. Certainly, all my scans show nothing out the ordinary. It’s nothing that a few minutes with a cortical stimulator couldn’t fix. I assure you, Lieutenant, every scan shows that she is as human as you or me. Figuratively speaking, of course.”</p><p>Although B’Elanna still looked sceptical, she didn’t push the matter any further. Buffy was glad that whatever Illyria had done to fool the Doctor’s medical scans held up even while she was unconscious. She hoped that, if anyone bothered to check the transporter logs, they’d dismiss the fact that Illyria showed up as having liquefied internal organs and virtually no body temperature as just more weirdness. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what the result of using a cortical stimulator on someone who had no brain would be.</p><p>“When will she wake up?” Janeway asked.</p><p>The Doctor shrugged. “Some time in the next few minutes. It’s difficult to be precise when talking about brain injuries, even for a doctor of my calibre.”</p><p>“Let me know the moment she wakes up. We need a plan of action, and she’s our expert.” She blinked. “Speaking of, we should ask Seven if she knows about this. If the Borg have been assimilating species this far out, she might know something we don’t.”</p><p>“We’re currently in an interfold layer between subspace and normal space, Captain,” Harry said. “We’re stuck on a sandbar.”</p><p>“Then get us unstuck.”</p><p>“Would help if we hadn’t left our supplies on Nikrenna,” B’Elanna grumbled. “We beamed everyone aboard, but we left the shuttle and everything in it there.”</p><p>“Work on getting our communications array up and running. Hopefully we can get the Nihydron to ferry our supplies over.” She didn’t voice the caveat ‘if they survived’.</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.”</p><p>“I’d be more concerned with that than getting us off our sandbar,” Buffy said.</p><p>Janeway shot her a questioning look. “Ensign?”</p><p>“Well, I’m no expert – like, literally – but if I was some guy who has the tech to break time, I’m pretty sure what lllyria did would make us stand out like a Christmas tree. Figure it’s only a matter of time before someone drops by to have a look.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter Seven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Illyria sat upright and swung her legs off of the bed before Buffy even knew she’d woken up. Her movements were steady and sure, and her eyes were an ordinary blue. There was nothing to suggest that the distortion had affected her in the slightest.</p><p>She looked at Buffy. “Why does my head hurt?”</p><p>If Illyria had been anyone else, Buffy would have thought that she’d forgotten everything that had happened. Given what <i>had</i> happened, she wouldn’t have been surprised. But this was Illyria. Illyria never forgot anything. “Doc got you with a cortical stimulator. He says you must’ve hit your head when Kes threw us across the quadrant, and the distortion triggered something or other. Something about brain trauma or something. He’ll probably want you to keep calm and not do the whole head banging thing for a bit.”</p><p>Illyria digested that for a moment. “I see.” She didn’t mention that they both knew that she hadn’t hit her head. She didn’t even have a brain to be traumatised. “What did you tell them?”</p><p>“Just that someone’s breaking time. Janeway wants to talk to you, now that you’ve woken up. I think B’Elanna probably wants your guts for frying our long distance communication array and for sticking us in a subspace bubble. Plus you kinda freaked her out, what with the whole growing a Cardassian neck ridge thing.” </p><p>Whatever Illyria might have said in response was interrupted by the Doctor bustling over. “Ah, you’re awake! How do you feel, Ensign?”</p><p>“Fine.”</p><p>He seemed a little taken aback by her terse response. Buffy hid a smile – as a doctor, he’d never had much cause to interact with Illyria. “Good. As I’m sure Ensign Summers has told you, you were suffering from a traumatic brain injury. Well, that and some complications from the distortion. You should be right as rain now, so I’m clearing you for duty. If you get any headaches you’d best come back for a check-up, though.”</p><p>“Of course.” Illyria stood smoothly. “I assume the captain wants to talk to me.”</p><p>“Oh, yeah. She’s in her ready room, trying to figure out what she wants to do with this whole mess. Come on, I’ll walk you over. You look a little bit woozy.” She didn’t, of course, and both of them knew it. The Doctor’s quizzical look told them that he knew too.</p><p>“Do you feel dizzy, Ensign?” He asked.</p><p>“Not at the moment, but then I felt fine until the distortion hit. An escort would seem appropriate, given the situation.”</p><p>The Doctor opened his mouth to tell her that she was healthy and she didn’t need any help when Buffy interrupted. “Thanks, Doc. Good work and stuff. You put the cortical stimulator on her head really nicely. Anyway, we should head off. You know how grouchy the captain gets when she’s kept waiting. C’mon Illyria, let’s go.” Buffy reached out to grab Illyria’s arm and steer her towards the door. Illyria stepped aside before Buffy could reach her, though, and she headed for the door all by herself. Buffy turned to the Doctor and gave him a brilliant smile. “See you later, Doc.”</p><p>He made a puzzled goodbye, but the pair were already out of the room.</p><p>“So.” Buffy took a deep breath, held it for a second, and then exhaled slowly. “How’d you feel?”</p><p>“I am fine.”</p><p>“I ask because when you were shivering and hunched over like someone had stabbed you in the gut, you looked like someone who wasn’t doing the whole fine thing. In fact, I could definitely say that the thing you were was not fine. There was a definite element of not-fineness going on.” </p><p>“That was then. This is now.”</p><p>“Never seen you like before, Blue. I’ve seen you shot, I’ve seen you stabbed, I’ve seen you walk out of bombed buildings. I’ve never seen you like that. So when you say that you’re fine when half an hour ago you were a trembling mess, I’m not with the believing.”</p><p>"Whether you believe me or not is immaterial. That was then. This is now. I felt as though the universe was scraping against my skull, as though my bones were melting and my skin was scattering like ash in the wind. But then time changed, and I changed with it.”</p><p>“Ookay,” Buffy said slowly. “Not entirely sure what to do with that.”</p><p>“What exactly did you tell the captain?” Illyria asked. If it had been anyone else, Buffy would have thought that she was trying to shift the conversation away from a difficult subject. But this was Illyria. She was practical to a fault. She’d probably decided that the conversation wasn’t worth having, so she’d decided not to have it.</p><p>“Oh, you know, your basic stuff. You were in research back in the Alpha Quadrant, you picked up some readings, blah blah blah. The kind of stuff that she could’ve picked up if she read the Maquis files from the <i>Val Jean</i>. I mean, the kind of stuff that she could’ve picked up if it wasn’t so stuffed full of jargon that even the Federation’s best eggheads would’ve had problems with it.”</p><p>They stepped into the turbolift. “Bridge.”</p><p>“I think B’Elanna suspects you’re not exactly your ordinary unfriendly neighbourhood engineer, by the way.”</p><p>“Has she checked the transporter logs?”</p><p>“Don’t think so. Hasn’t really had the time – Janeway’s been running her ragged. But if we can make it through the next few days without being hurled into next week, I wouldn’t put it past her.”</p><p>“If we make it through the next few days, it will be next week.”</p><p>Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “Was that a joke?”</p><p>“Merely an observation.”</p><p>The turbolift doors slid open and Illyria was already heading towards the ready room before Buffy could decide whether she was messing with her or not. She sighed, and followed after her.</p><p>Janeway wasn’t alone in her ready room. Tuvok and Chakotay were there too and, by the looks of things, they’d interrupted something. Janeway looked up from a PADD when the pair walked into the room. She frowned when she saw Buffy, her body language clearly saying that she didn’t remember giving her permission to be there. Then she visibly decided that now wasn’t a good time to stand on protocol, and she turned to Illyria. “How’re you feeling, Ensign?”</p><p>“I’m fine.”</p><p>“We’ve been puzzling through your file. To be honest, temporal physics was never a strong suit of mine and it’s a bit beyond us.” Janeway tapped the PADD in front of her. “Would you mind breaking it down for us?”</p><p>Illyria tilted her head to one side. “How much time do you have?”</p><p>Chakotay smiled faintly. “Sooner is better.”</p><p>“Someone has been systematically altering history for the past two centuries. I was able to pinpoint the alterations to this region of space, but even with the best sensors that I could design I wasn’t able to work out how it was being done.”</p><p>“Now that we’re closer, do you think that you could reconfigure our sensors so that we could get a better idea of what’s going on?” Janeway asked quickly.</p><p>“I can hone them until they can detect the origin point of the next spatial distortion,” Illyria said, “but that won’t help you much.”</p><p>Janeway put her hands on her hips. “Why? If we know the distortion’s source, then we can work out who’s causing it.”</p><p>“When time breaks, effect becomes uncoupled from cause. We could find the origin point of the distortion, but that might not be the <i>source</i>.”</p><p>“I’m having flashbacks to my time in the Academy. I can feel the headache coming on already,” Janeway murmured. “I’ll bite. What’s the difference between the origin point of the distortion and the source?”</p><p>“Take your classic paradox,” Illyria said. Buffy was surprised. Illyria rarely bothered to explain anything – her word was law, iron and unquestionable. Now she was acting like a teacher. Buffy could see how she’d fit in at the Vulcan Science Academy. “You travel back in time to kill your grandfather. As a result, you are never born. Where does time break?”</p><p>“Conventional knowledge would suggest that it does not. Such an event is impossible,” Tuvok said. “In the event of a catastrophic change to the timeline, the probability of the instigating event becomes zero.”</p><p>“Yeah, because that totally explains why Earth’s tech boom back in the 20th century was caused a ship from the 29th crashing there,” Buffy said drily.</p><p>Tuvok raised an eyebrow. “It would appear that conventional knowledge is mistaken.”</p><p>“Does time break at the moment that you kill your grandfather? Or earlier, when you decide to do it? When you travel back in time? At the moment of your birth, which will now never happen? On your non-existent death bed? When time breaks, where do the pieces go?”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Janeway said, “and I get the feeling that I’m not going to like the answer. I probably won’t understand it, but I can tell I won’t like it.”</p><p>“The moment that the possibility of there being a paradox reaches a certain point, it becomes a certainty. At a certain point, it has already happened, even if the point at which it happens is in the future. This generates a vast amount of energy. Enough to split open the sky.” Buffy remembered a sky the colour of blood and torn muscle. “The paradox creates a temporal explosion which echoes throughout time. The distortion is a piece of it, but it isn’t – and cannot be – the source.”</p><p>“You’re referring to the Izh’Lara Conjecture,” Tuvok said.</p><p>“Izh’Lara?” Buffy asked. She looked at Illyria. There was no way that a name like that could be a coincidence.</p><p>At the same time, Illyria said ”Conjecture?”</p><p>“Izh’Lara was the head of the temporal physics department at the Vulcan Science Academy, 170 years ago. Almost everything that we know about temporality stems from her work,” Tuvok explained. “She posited that the alteration of time causes temporal shockwaves that spread through the past and future. Far from a paradox being impossible, at a certain point it can become an inevitability. The shattering of time caused by a paradox guarantees that there will be a paradox. I believe the conjecture states that this causes a recursive temporal explosion which echoes throughout the past, present and future.”</p><p>“It isn’t a conjecture,” Illyria said. The amount of scorn she put into the last word meant that it hit like a fist. “It is fact. Classified fact.”</p><p>“Okay.” Janeway cupped her face with one hand and rubbed her eyes tiredly with the other. “So you’re saying that the spatial distortion is what, exactly? Some sort of an explosion of temporal energy at a random point along the time line?”</p><p>“Not necessarily,” Illyria conceded. “But once effect becomes uncoupled from cause, there is no way of knowing how tenuous the link is between the origin of the distortion and the source of the paradox.”</p><p>For a moment, Janeway’s head looked like it was going to explode from trying to follow what Illyria was saying. Buffy could actually see the moment when she decided not to bother. “Still, it’s the only lead we’ve got. Get to work, Ensign.”</p><p>Illyria inclined her head and left, the dismissal clear. Buffy turned to follow her, but before she could Janeway said “One moment, Summers.”</p><p>Janeway looked over at Tuvok and Chakotay. They got the message and left. Chakotay gave her a sympathetic look which suggested that she was going to be raked over the coals.</p><p>“I appreciate your concern for your friend, Ensign, but that doesn’t mean that you can waltz into briefings that don’t concern you.”</p><p>“Not too long ago she was having seizures. We discussed it with the Doctor – it was decided that her having an escort was a good idea.” Not <i>totally</i> a lie. They had discussed it with the Doctor, but he hadn’t been the one who had made the decision.</p><p>Janeway gave her a look that told her that she didn’t buy it for a moment. Nevertheless, she decided to play along. “Then the correct thing to do would’ve been to walk her as far as the door.”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Guess so, Captain. Didn’t really want her to fall flat on her face in front of ship’s command.”</p><p>Janeway looked at her intently. “Did you know, Ensign, that when the Maquis first joined my crew Tuvok told me that there were three people that I should keep an eye on. If there was going to be a mutiny, it wouldn’t get off the ground without those three people.”</p><p>Buffy frowned in confusion. “How did we get from disobeying protocol to mutiny? I mean, I get the link, I guess, but there’s kind of a difference between making sure that your friend is okay and deciding to rename the ship the <i>Bounty</i>.”</p><p>“The first was Chakotay, of course,” Janeway continued as though Buffy hadn’t spoken. “He was the captain. Then there’s B’Elanna. As abrasive as she can be, she can also be charismatic when she wants. She has the potential to be an excellent leader, once she gets out of her own way.” She looked at Buffy. “Then there was you.”</p><p>“Okay, I’m not going to lie, I kind of thought that was where you were going when you started this,” Buffy admitted, “but that doesn’t mean that Tuvok’s any less whacko for thinking it. If he was keeping an eye on me, it’s no surprise that the whole Seska thing got way out of hand.” Seska had been a Cardassian operative that had been surgically altered to look like a Bajoran so that she could infiltrate the Maquis. She’d disagreed with Janeway’s leadership style and had joined a group of aliens that had almost captured Voyager on several occasions.</p><p>“People follow you, Ensign.”</p><p>“No they don’t.” Not anymore. “I’m an ensign. I’m basically a drone with better fashion sense.”</p><p>“On many occasions, you’ve taken command of security personnel when Tuvok wasn’t available. I’ve read the reports. I’ve read your file. You’re an excellent tactician.”</p><p>“Thanks, I guess?” Buffy shrugged. “If you’re worried about me coming for the big chair, don’t bother. I’m, like, totally not into command.” Not anymore.</p><p>“I know,” Janeway said simply. “I knew when I asked you about Seven.”</p><p>“Wait, when you said that people had mutinied over stuff like having a drone on board, were you feeling me out?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence.”</p><p>“The point is that people will follow you. That means you have to set an example. You can’t just come bursting in here-“</p><p>“Okay, I wouldn’t call it <i>bursting</i>, it was definitely not that. I’m far too graceful to burst.”</p><p>“-whether you’re worried about your friend or not.” Janeway smiled softly. “That also means that you shouldn’t interrupt your captain.”</p><p>“Oh. Right. Sorry.”</p><p>Janeway gave her a long look. “We need to get the supplies from Nikrenna.”</p><p>Buffy blinked. “Oh, we’re talking about that now. Okay.”</p><p>“Until we get out of this subspace bubble, we can’t just transport down. That means that we’ll need to send a shuttle. We’ll need two people – one to fly the first shuttle, and the other to take the helm of the shuttle on Nikrenna. Tom’s the obvious choice for one of the pilots. You’re the second.”</p><p>“Um, I thought I was getting yelled at for a tiny, tiny mutiny. How come I’m suddenly on an away mission?”</p><p>“You’re a good pilot. I don’t have an endless supply of them, and navigating through the interfold layer isn’t exactly routine flying.”</p><p>“Okay. When do I leave?”</p><p>“Now."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Author’s note: I put an entirely unnecessary amount of thought into Illyria’s Vulcan name. Izh’Lara, besides sounding superficially similar to Illyria, means ‘snow-blue bird’. It seemed fitting.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter Eight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Buffy walked into the shuttle bay. Tom wasn’t there yet. Janeway probably hadn’t had time to tell him about the mission.</p><p>She walked into the shuttle and started the pre-flight check while she waited. This took about a minute. Then she folded her hands behind her head, leaned back in her chair and said “You going to come out at some point?”</p><p>There was a moment of silence, followed by a shuffling sound behind her. Buffy swivelled around to see B’Elanna wearing an uncharacteristically sheepish expression. “How did you know I was there?”</p><p>“For one thing, the pre-flight check shows that someone’s been messing with the comm systems, and last I checked that was your job. Plus there was the fact that I saw you leap for cover when I came in. That was the big clue, really.” Buffy grinned. “All this time as an engineer’s made you soft, B’El. You were much better at sneaking when we were Maquis.”</p><p>“Don’t call me B’El,” B’Elanna said automatically, as she had so many times before.</p><p>“I think it’s got a nice ring to it.”</p><p>B’Elanna rolled her eyes. That definitely wasn’t the first time that Buffy had made that joke. It wasn’t even the hundredth. “I should throw you in the brig for cheeking a superior officer.”</p><p>“If you did that, they’d be overcrowded in minutes and Tuvok would have command.” Buffy’s smile faded. “Seriously, though. Why’d you hide when I came in? Because if you wanted to leap out and do the whole startling thing, you kind of need to actually leap for the startlage to happen. Not that jumping out at me is a good idea.” Buffy didn’t react well to surprises.</p><p>“I wanted to see what you’d do.”</p><p>Buffy scratched her head. “You do know that I’ve permission to be here, right? I’m not going for a joyride.”</p><p>“I know. Janeway called, said I wasn’t to cannibalise the shuttles for parts. Which was annoying, because I was partway through doing that.”</p><p>“So you knew I was coming and you knew why, but you decided to do a little sneaking anyway? What did you think I’d do? Grow a second head? Radio the Borg? Do a spot of karaoke? ‘Cause you should know, it’d take something majorly weird for me to sing. Time breaking doesn’t cut it.”</p><p>“I… don’t really know what I was expecting you to do,” B’Elanna admitted. “Growing a Cardassian neck ridge was up there.”</p><p>“I’m not Cardassian.”</p><p>“That’s what Seska said.”</p><p>“I’m not Seska, either. Is there some reason you’re suddenly thinking I’m a spy or something?”</p><p>“What is she?”</p><p>“I don’t know. You know why? ‘Cause I <i>don’t know who you’re talking about</i>.”</p><p>B’Elanna crossed her arms. “Sure you do.”</p><p>“Given all the cryptic crypticness you’ve got going on, I’m going to guess that you’re talking about Illyria. Which, you know, is weird because the Doc says she’s human and he’s got a gazillion gadgets to prove it.”</p><p>“First thing I did after the briefing in Sickbay was to go and see if I could beam the supplies directly from the shuttle on the planet’s surface. I found out I can’t. I also found the transporter logs.”</p><p>“Transporter room’s a good place for that,” Buffy said breezily. Her stomach clenched, although she didn’t show it. This could be bad.</p><p>“Turns out you’re human.”</p><p>“See? Told you.”</p><p>“But she isn’t. I don’t know what she is.”</p><p>“Human.”</p><p>“Oh, no. Nothing human is like that. Almost all of her internal organs are liquefied. I don’t even know how she’s up and moving around, let alone what species she is.”</p><p>“And you think that she somehow managed to fool the Doctor?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Even though she was unconscious at the time?” Buffy leant forward. “Got to say, out of all the conspiracy theories I’ve ever heard, this one’s definitely up there on the not-thought-out list.”</p><p>“She’s been on board for four years. She could’ve altered the Doctor’s programming.”</p><p>“Has she?” Buffy genuinely wasn’t sure. Illyria had never told her what methods she used to avoid detection, and Buffy had never asked. It was safer that way. “I thought you <i>personally</i> run regular diagnostics.”</p><p>“I don’t think so,” B’Elanna admitted. “But then I didn’t think that you could use a communication array to make an isolation field until just now.”</p><p>“So what I’m hearing is that you’ve got nothing except a kinda freaked out feeling. Basically you’re thinking ‘Hey, Illyria’s always been weird and this whole thing has made her weirder – what if she’s actually some kind of alien with a warm gooey centre?’” Buffy shrugged. “Sounds like you’re reaching to me. Given that we’ve got messages from the future and an amazing time travelling ping pong ball, wacky logs seems pretty mundane.”</p><p>B’Elanna shook her head. “I don’t buy it. There’s something… off about her. When the distortion was coming, she talked about breathing as though that wasn’t something she did. She talked as though she didn't have a heartbeat - which, according to the transporter log, she doesn't. I don’t know what she is, but I’m going to find out.” </p><p>She swept out of the shuttle, almost knocking Tom over as she left. She didn’t appear to notice. Tom looked after her as she walked away, and then gave Buffy a quizzical look. “Anything I should know about?”</p><p>“Oh, probably.”</p><p>He sat beside Buffy and looked at her expectantly. After a few moments, when she didn’t elaborate, he said “Well?”</p><p>“Well what?”</p><p>“What was that about?”</p><p>“Nothing that makes sense. B’Elanna’s got some crazy theories that Illyria’s some kind of… I don’t even know.”</p><p>“Is she?”</p><p>Buffy rounded on Tom. “Really? You too?”</p><p>“I wouldn’t have thought so, but this whole time breaking thing has come out of nowhere.”</p><p>“It only came out of nowhere because Kes threw us 10,000 light years. Until a couple of days ago, she had ten years to break it to everyone.”</p><p>“True.”</p><p>“You should talk to B’Elanna. She tends to lash out at people when she’s upset.”</p><p>“I hadn’t noticed,” Tom replied sardonically.</p><p>“One moment she was the head of her department and everything made sense. Then suddenly the universe wasn’t as sensible as she thought it was, a whole bunch of weird stuff happens and up pops Illyria, who it turns out is suddenly an expert. She’s overwhelmed. I’d probably come up with a conspiracy theory too.” Buffy shrugged. “When I moved away for college, I was so overwhelmed by everything that I thought my roommate was a soul-stealing monster.” She’d been right, but Tom didn’t need to know that. “Compared to that, the stuff B’Elanna was saying is practically sane.” </p><p>Tom looked at her for a long second. For a moment, Buffy wasn’t sure that he’d bought it, but then he shrugged and turned back to the panel in front of him. “Have you done the pre-flight check already?”</p><p>“Yep. Everything’s fine apart from the comm systems. B’Elanna was going to take them before Janeway’s orders came through. They’re a little wonky.”</p><p>“Let’s have a look – oh, that’s nothing. Self-diagnostic repair will take care of it before we get close to the edge of the interfold layer.” He smiled. “We’re ready for take-off.”</p><p>“Then let’s go.”</p><p>“Yes ma’am.” He made a mock salute. Buffy scowled at him. He started up the engine.</p><p>“You know,” Buffy said after a moment, “I always thought that subspace would look… different, somehow. It just looks like ordinary space.” Admittedly, she didn’t recognise the stars, but <i>Voyager</i> travelled so far so quickly that that wasn’t unusual. </p><p>“What did you think it would look like?”</p><p>“Oh, I dunno. Giant train station, maybe, or a sandwich.” She grinned at him.</p><p>Tom laughed. “I’d love a trip through sandwich space. It would save us from Neelix’s cooking.”</p><p>“Knowing our luck, they’d be filled with leola root.”</p><p>“Why’d you have to say that?” Tom grimaced theatrically. “I was enjoying the idea of sub sandwich space.”</p><p>“Sorry,” Buffy said unrepentantly.</p><p>“Anyway, this isn’t really subspace. This is normal space that Illyria warped with a-“</p><p>“Just fly. I’ve listened to enough technical stuff today. Even Janeway was getting fed up with it, and she’s practically Captain Science.”</p><p>“What I was getting at is that, if you want to see something different from normal space, you’ll have to wait until we get to the edge of the interfold layer. That’s when things start getting interesting.” Tom’s eyes lit up with anticipation. Like a lot of pilots, he loved a challenge. Buffy would be lying if she said that she wasn’t excited too.</p><p>“Yeah? What sort of interesting?”</p><p>“Why spoil the surprise? We’ll be there in a few seconds.”</p><p>Before she had a chance to point out that she was supposed to be flying a shuttle through this in the not-too-distant future, the universe changed. The stars vanished. Visually, it looked as though they were flying through a nebula, but the sensors didn’t indicate any change. Above them was something that looked like a sky, even if it was covered by a vast yellowish cloud. The same cloud appeared to extend below them, although it took on a blue-grey hue. In the distance, vast geysers of orange energy erupted from the cloud at random, impossible angles. It was stunning.</p><p>“Okay,” Buffy said. “That might’ve been worth the surprise.”</p><p>“Told you.”</p><p>“What’re the geyser things?”</p><p>“Astral eddies. They’re our way out.”</p><p>“You’ve got to be kidding me.”</p><p>Tom just grinned. The shuttle accelerated towards the nearest geyser.</p><p>“We should really fit these things with seatbelts,” Buffy grumbled.</p><p>“If it gets to the point that we need them, then we won’t need them.”</p><p>“Oh that’s comforting, that is.”</p><p>“Just keep an eye on the shields.” Tom’s grin widened. “We’re in for a bumpy ride.”</p><p>Then they ran into the astral eddy. The shuttle jumped, but not as much as Buffy would have expected. It was like they’d suddenly entered a current – Tom expertly adjusted their course so that they weren’t torn to pieces. </p><p>“Shields at 86%. Reading approximately a lot of plasma particles.”</p><p>“That your expert opinion?” Tom said drily</p><p>“Hey, if you wanted science, you should’ve brought Tuvok.”</p><p>“We should be fine. Shields can take it and we’ll be out any second… now.” They shot out into normal space. They were spinning wildly – it was a dizzying moment before the inertial dampeners compensated. Tom made a couple of adjustments and they were steady again. “There we go.”</p><p>“Sure beats a rollercoaster.”</p><p>“You can say that again. I know there was a Ferengi back home who was planning on building an amusement park in space, so that…” Tom trailed off with a frown. “That can’t be right.”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“How big was the settlement on Nikrenna?”</p><p>“Ten thousand or so. Why?”</p><p>“There’s less than half that, now.”</p><p>Buffy winced. “Fifty percent casualties? That’s rough.”</p><p>Tom shook his head. “That’s not it. It’s not just the population. The whole colony is smaller. Different. There’s less buildings. Here, take a look.”</p><p>Tom was right. The scan showed about four thousand life signs, and the city was significantly smaller. There was no sign of damage, though. The buildings just weren’t there. There was no sign that they ever had been. The scan wasn’t exactly comprehensive, but by the look of things the buildings that <i>were</i> there weren’t the same as those that had been there before.</p><p>“Looks like time breaking had a few side-effects.”</p><p>“Looks like,” Tom agreed. “The other shuttle is still down there. We should take a look.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>It wasn’t the same city. For one thing, it barely looked like a city at all. It was more like a ramshackle collection of squat buildings. Most of them looked like they were made out of the remains of ships. It reminded Buffy of some of the Bajoran camps that she’d seen back in the Alpha Quadrant – it looked like the kind of settlement that should only have been temporary, until something better came along. But nothing ever had.</p><p>Everyone they could see were Nihydron, too. Previously, the majority of the city had been made up of traders from other species – now there was nothing to trade. The Nihydron’s expressions were different, too. Before, they’d been incredibly welcoming, almost overly so. That had been part of the reason that Buffy had been suspicious. Now, though, it was the Nihydron who were suspicious. They looked at the pair warily.</p><p>“You’re back,” a cold voice said behind them.</p><p>They turned to see Commissioner Nythea – although, by the look of things, she almost certainly wasn’t a commissioner anymore. Before she’d looked perfectly professional in her immaculate uniform. Now she was wearing the same sort of clothes as everyone else. They were clean, but they looked old. Her hair was tied back in a messy ponytail. She was flanked by two large men wearing identical scowls and weapons on their hips.</p><p>“Didn’t expect you to show your faces around here again.”</p><p>Tom rubbed the back of his neck. “I think you’ve got the advantage of us here.”</p><p>“You’re still called Nythea, right?” Buffy asked.</p><p>Nythea tilted her head to one side and gave them both a cool look. “What else would I be called?”</p><p>“The way my day’s been going, Ooga-Booga the Time Gremlin.” One of Nythea’s goons guffawed. The other one smacked him. “Would you mind telling us why we left?”</p><p>Nythea shrugged. “Something about a spatial distortion.”</p><p>“That tracks,” Buffy whispered out of the corner of her mouth.</p><p>“Personally, I thought that you’d decided to leave us here to rot. Most everyone does.” She crossed her arms. “Well?”</p><p>“Okay. So, we were recalled to our ship, and we-“</p><p>“Basically the spatial distortion was caused by someone breaking time,” Buffy interrupted her. Tom glared at her. “What? She deserves to know.”</p><p>“Breaking time?” Nythea said, puzzled.</p><p>“Uh huh. When we came down before, we spoke with a different version of you. This whole place was different. But then time broke, and we managed to shield ourselves from most of it. Looks like you weren’t so lucky, and you got caught up in the new timeline. The people you met before were us, but, uh, they don’t exist anymore. They kinda never did.”</p><p>“It’s a little bit more complicated than that.” Tom paused. “Actually no, that’s about it.”</p><p>“We bought some supplies here. We came down to pick them up. We didn’t really expect this whole change thing.” Although they should have, she reflected. “I don’t know what we said to you before, but that’s the shape of things now.”</p><p>“You’re telling me that time broke, and the universe changed?”</p><p>“Yup. Last thing we knew, you were the big cheese – um, the dominant power in this sector. This was a trading outpost. We were in trade negotiations.” Buffy shrugged. “I know that sounds like total craziness and all that, but-“</p><p>“No,” Nythea interrupted firmly. “It sounds like the Krenim.”</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter Nine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Any chance they’re a group of evil creatures that pop up out of nowhere and burn down worlds?” Buffy asked, remembering the information that she’d found out last time she’d been on Nikrenna. Tom and Nythea both gave her identical confused looks. “Just a legend I heard when I was here last time,” she muttered.</p><p>“A few generations ago, the Krenim were the rulers of this sector. They ruled with an iron fist, using their knowledge of temporal science to stay in power.” Nythea gave the pair a knowing look.</p><p>“What sort of temporal science?” Tom asked.</p><p>“Their weapons were in a state of constant temporal flux. There was no defence against them – they passed through shields as though they weren’t even there. It took a coalition of four species to bring them down. We were one of them,” Nythea said proudly.</p><p>“How’d you manage to take down people who break time? I mean, unstoppable weapons are pretty bad, but I don’t get how you can beat a race that can remove you from history before breakfast.”</p><p>Nythea frowned. “There were rumours that they were developing more advanced weapons, but they failed. The Mawasi destroyed their research stations.”</p><p>“The Mawasi?” Tom queried. “Are you sure they destroyed them? They could have taken the research for themselves.”</p><p>Nythea shook her head. “No. They were shock troops in the war. They came out of it even worse than we did.” She smiled bitterly. “Turns out that the Zahl weren’t so grateful to their former allies. No, if someone’s breaking time, then it’s a remnant of the Krenim Imperium. They’re the only ones who would have the expertise. There’s still a few of them floating around. They’re no better than beggars these days. No better than us. At least, that’s how they look.”</p><p>Buffy thought for a moment, trying to remember all the new species that Nythea was throwing at them. She’d never been great with names to begin with. Over the centuries she’d tried to stop mangling every alien name she came across – both because they tended to be touchy about things like that and because she often needed to look like she was competent and knew what she was doing. There was a time and place for seeming like a brainless airhead, and this wasn’t it. “If the – what did you say they were called? The Sail? If the Sail are in charge around here, couldn’t they have scavenged some technology to make sure they stay that way?”</p><p>“If they had, we’d know about it. Temporal science was banned after the war. There’d be another war. Not that they need it, anyway. The <i>Zahl</i>,” Nythea stressed the word, “were in the perfect position to take advantage of the power vacuum. Everyone else lost too much.”</p><p>“So basically you’re saying that it’s the Krenim and no one but the Krenim.”</p><p>Nythea looked up at the sky. “We lost a lot, during the war. Everyone did. But the Krenim lost everything. These days, they’re used as stories to tell our children. Be good or you’ll end up like the Krenim. Don’t stay out after dark or the Krenim will get you. When they pass by, everyone shuts their doors.” She spread her arms in a gesture that took in the whole city. “I’m not saying that what we’ve got is great, but it’s better than what they have. If I were them, if I had a chance to change things – and they knew more about temporal science than anyone – then I would.”</p><p>Buffy nodded. That checked out. When Illyria had first told her that someone was breaking time, her first guess had been that it was some disgruntled faction of the newly-founded Federation that hadn’t liked how the Romulan war had turned out. They might be on the other end of the galaxy, but people were people. There were always those who didn’t know how to move on. “D’you know where we might find them?”</p><p>Nythea shrugged. “They live on ships. No one wants to see them. They travel from planet to planet, scavenging what they can, stealing everything else.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Tom said. “You’ve been very helpful. Can you give us a moment? I just want to talk to Buffy for a moment.”</p><p>Nythea looked amused. “Sure.”</p><p>Tom pulled Buffy into an alley. “You know they can still hear us, right?” Buffy asked. “Why are doing the whole secret thing?”</p><p>“Do you believe what they’re saying?”</p><p>“Is there a reason that I shouldn’t?”</p><p>“Seems a bit convenient that there’s suddenly a whole race that’s known for their prowess with temporal science. Never heard anything about them when I was here last time.”</p><p>“I didn’t either, but in case you haven’t noticed this isn’t exactly the same place that we visited last time. They were the guys in charge. If they beat the Krenim then, there’s no reason we would’ve heard of them. Think about it – of all the aliens we’ve ever met, even back in the Federation, how many people would have heard of the bogeyman? You heard what she said. That’s what the Krenim are to them.” </p><p>“We don’t even know if the Krenim existed before time broke.”</p><p>“True. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist now.” Buffy looked up at him. “Is there a reason that you’re all with the suspicion, or is it just B’Elanna rubbing off on you?”</p><p>Tom opened his mouth to protest, then shut it again. He smiled ruefully. “I guess it’s what you said earlier. One moment I was a senior officer. The next it turns out that the universe isn’t as straightforward as I thought it was. With the Borg I knew where I stood. It wasn’t a place that I <i>liked</i>, but at least they make sense. This whole time breaking thing makes me feel as though my head might explode.”</p><p>“So what you’re saying is that I probably shouldn’t tell you that the only person we know who seems to still be around is Nythea?” Buffy said mischievously.</p><p>Tom’s eyes widened. “Good point. If history changed, what are the chances that the same person was born in both timelines?”</p><p>“Sounds like a question for Illyria.”</p><p>“Or it means that Nythea’s involved somehow.”</p><p>“I’m pretty sure things would have gone totally sideways if she was. Those goons she’s got with her are just the most obvious. There’s a bunch dotted around the place. Looks like they’ve had a few bad encounters and they’re on their guard. It’s more that they’re wary than that they’re hiding something.” Buffy shrugged. “Plus there’s the fact that they’ve gone from the VIPs of the sector to basically refugees. If they’re breaking time for fun and profit, they’re really bad at it.”</p><p>Tom looked back into the main street, trying to see the goons. Buffy rolled her eyes. “Okay,” he said slowly. “Let’s say that they’re telling the truth. Our next move should be to find the Krenim.”</p><p>“Which is a problem, ‘cause <i>Voyager</i>’s stuck on a sandbar and, even if she wasn’t, no one knows where they are.”</p><p>“Right. So you should take the shuttle back to the ship. They’ll need the parts. I’ll stay here. There’s got to be <i>someone</i> who knows something.”</p><p>“No offence, Tom, but they aren’t likely to open up to someone who thinks that they might be involved in some kind of massive temporal conspiracy thing.”</p><p>Tom waved that away. “I’m good at getting people to tell me things they don’t want me to know.”</p><p>“As fun as it’ll be to have that blow up in your face, if anyone’s going to stay here, it should be me. This is the next best thing to a Bajoran camp and, last I checked, the last time you were around one you got nicked by Starfleet for being Maquis.” Buffy’s smile faded. “I’ve had a lot of practice talking to people like this.” Too much, really.</p><p>Tom hesitated. Buffy could tell that he was torn between his desire to find out more about the situation rather and his duty to <i>Voyager</i>. His shoulders sagged slightly. “Fine. Go to the shuttle. See if it’s still operational. If its sensor logs survived, there might be some useful information. Give me, oh, thirty minutes.”</p><p>“Sure.” She doubted he’d find anything, but he’d feel better if he tried. Like B’Elanna, his biggest problem was that he felt like the situation was out of his control. Something like this, even if it didn’t work out, would go a little way towards making him feel like things made sense again.</p><p>~*~</p><p>The shuttle was outside the city. It hadn’t been, originally. There’d been a thriving spaceport. Now there was virtually no reason for anyone to come here and nowhere for anyone here to go.</p><p>Buffy was surprised that it hadn’t been stripped for parts. It’s what she would have done, if she were the Nihydron. They had no reason to believe that the crew would ever come back, and some of the technology in it would make their lives substantially easier. She supposed that, in a manner of speaking, they hadn’t had the time. That thought gave her a headache.</p><p>The cargo bay was empty. There was no sign that there had ever been anything there. Which made sense, when Buffy thought about it. The merchants that Illyria had bought the equipment from might not even exist anymore, and the Nihydron definitely didn’t have anything worth trading for. That raised some questions itself – the only reason that there was a shuttle here to begin with was because they’d planned to get equipment and rations. In this timeline, the Nihydron couldn’t spare either, but the shuttle was still there. Buffy supposed that that was a question for Illyria.</p><p>There was nothing interesting in the sensor logs, either. There was no record of the distortion. Of course, once the distortion had passed by, it had never happened. The only reason anyone on <i>Voyager</i> knew about it was because they hadn’t been in normal space at the time. The shuttle hadn’t been so lucky. No wonder Nythea hadn’t believed that they’d left because of the distortion. As far as she was concerned there hadn’t been one. That raised a question, too. Why did Nythea remember being told that there was a distortion if, in this timeline, there’d never been one? There were a lot of other reasons for a crew to evacuate a planet. When time had changed, the current history was the only history there had ever been and, in that history, there’d never been a distortion.</p><p>Buffy supposed that Illyria could probably explain, and that she probably wouldn’t understand even if she did. Janeway wasn’t the only person who had trouble wrapping their head around paradoxes.</p><p>She walked out of the shuttle to wait for Tom. She didn’t want to leave it unattended – just because it hadn’t been stripped yet didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be.</p><p>As it turned out, though, she wouldn’t have been leaving it unattended. There was someone there. He hadn’t been a moment before, but he was definitely there now. His Starfleet uniform was command red, and his collar bore the pips of an admiral. Despite that, he was sprawled casually over the hull of the shuttle as though it was a divan. He waved cheerfully at Buffy.</p><p>Buffy cursed under her breath. </p><p>“Now now, there’s no need for language like that,” Q tutted.</p><p>“I thought we agreed that I’d never see you again.”</p><p>Q looked surprised. “Did we? When?”</p><p>“The fall of Threllvia IV.”</p><p>“I haven’t done that yet.” Q clicked his fingers. A diary appeared in his hands. He quickly flicked through it – there seemed to be far more pages in it than should really be possible. “Ah, yes, there it is. Something to look forward to.”</p><p>“That was more than two hundred years ago.”</p><p>Q gave her a patronising look. “Even now you’re still clinging to linear time. Really, you should know better.”</p><p>Buffy crossed her arms. “Whatever. What do you want?”</p><p>“Can’t I drop by to see an old friend?”</p><p>“First, you’re totally not a friend. Second, not unless you want me to kick you from here to the Andromeda galaxy.” Buffy grinned, exposing her teeth. “If you <i>do</i> want that, though, I’m totally the girl for it.”</p><p>“As fun as that sounds, I think I’ll have to give it a pass,” he said drily. “I’m here to help.”</p><p>“I’m pretty sure that the biggest thing you can do to help is go away.”</p><p>“That’s nice, that is.” Q slid to a standing position. “The only reason the Krenim ship hasn’t found Voyager already is because they’re having a little bit of trouble with their sensors. It would be a shame if they were to fix them.”</p><p>“So it <i>is</i> the Krenim,” Buffy said. She ignored his veiled threat. Q could do what he liked. He always did.</p><p>Q covered his mouth with one hand, feigning shock. “Did I say that? Oops!”</p><p>“Fine. So you’ve made sure they haven’t found us yet. That’s all well and good, but that still doesn’t mean that I’m on board with whatever you’re up to.”</p><p>“Who says I’m up to anything? I’m just as much against time breaking as the next omnipotent being. When time breaks, the pieces always end up in the strangest places. We still haven’t found all the pieces from the last time it happened. I think there’s one down the back of the sofa, but that could just be loose change.” He smirked. “You get a lot of that when time breaks.”</p><p>Buffy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. That’s so funny that I just might smile. But hopefully you’ll get to the point at some point, and then we can get on with things. I can do my job, and you can go and be the most annoying person in the galaxy somewhere else. So spill, unless you want to get back to the whole kicking thing.”</p><p>“Oh, I think you’ll find that I’ve already made my point. You just weren’t listening.”</p><p>Before Buffy could even <i>try</i> to kick him, he snapped his fingers and vanished in a burst of light. Buffy scowled at the place where he’d been standing.</p><p>Someone cleared their throat behind her. Buffy whirled around.</p><p>“Do you want to explain what that was about?” Tom asked.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter Ten</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What was what about?” Buffy said. “You told me to go to the shuttle and look at sensor data, and would you look at that? There’s the shuttle, and I already looked at the logs.”</p><p>“We both know that I wasn’t talking about that. You were talking to Q.”</p><p>“Q who?”</p><p>Tom gave an exasperated sigh. “Summers, just answer the question.”</p><p>Buffy rubbed the back of her neck. “Right. Okay. Yeah.” She looked up at the sky. “Um. We used to date.”</p><p>Even without looking at him, she could imagine the expression on Tom’s face. “You what?”</p><p>“I didn’t know what he was at the time. He didn’t start out being an ass with super powers. Though I should probably have been tipped off by the fact that he called himself the Immortal.”</p><p>“Even if I believed that – which I don’t, I can’t imagine Q not being an ass – that doesn’t explain you being at the fall of Threllvia IV. 22nd century history isn’t exactly my strong suit, but last I checked Romulans conquered that planet during the Earth-Romulan war.”</p><p>She looked back down at Tom and burst out laughing. “I’m sorry. I can’t keep this up. Me and Q? No way. Not a chance in any of the hells.” It probably would have been a believable lie, if she’d been able to keep it up. Or at least it would have been so totally unbelievable that Tom would’ve believed it because no one would ever come up with something so totally insane. It even had the ring of truth – she <i>had</i> dated someone called the Immortal once, and like all good lies it was embarrassing.</p><p>“So how <i>do</i> you know Q?” Tom asked, giving her a glare to rival Janeway.</p><p>“Did I ever tell you how I met Illyria?”</p><p>“No. You always said that it was a long story and that you’ve known each other practically forever.”</p><p>“Q took an interest in me, a few years back. Don’t know why. Some reason that probably only makes sense if you’re from a different dimension and a few letters short of an alphabet. He used to take me time travelling.” It wasn’t an unbelievable lie. Time was nothing to a member of the Continuum. “I told someone, the next thing you know the Federation’s involved and there’s a research team following my every move. Illyria was the head of the team. She wanted to know how Q did it, what it was like, where we went, what happened. You know, those gritty technical questions that make your head explode. There was a whole thing about it.” She shrugged. “Technically all of this is classified, but I suppose that doesn’t matter now.”</p><p>“Why? Why was it classified? When Captain Picard made first contact with Q-“</p><p>“He didn’t, that was me.”</p><p>Tom looked startled. “When he made first <i>official</i> contact, everything was on record. Every encounter’s a case study back at the Academy. Why weren’t yours?”</p><p>“You heard what Nythea said. If it was found out that the Zahl were working on temporal science, there’d be another war. How’d you think the Romulans would feel if they found out that the Federation had someone at Threllvia IV? What about the Cardassians? The Tholians? Even the Klingons would turn on us. Time travel’s dangerous.”</p><p>“I guess that makes sense,” Tom said under a moment’s consideration. “What did Q want with you, though? Specifically?” </p><p>“I think he wanted a better understanding of humans. Either that or I was the rebound from some squabble he’d had with Picard. Hard to say with Q.”</p><p>Tom looked vaguely queasy at that thought. “What happened at Threllvia IV? How come he agreed not to see you again? I know a lot of people would rest easier if there was a sure-fire way to keep Q away.”</p><p>The humour dropped from Buffy’s face. “It was a warzone.” Her voice had an air of finality. There wouldn’t be any further questions. “People died.”</p><p>Although Tom was clearly dying to know more, even he recognised a sensitive topic when he heard one. “Okay. So what was he here for, then?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Could be he just wanted you to overhear everything. Maybe he just wanted to cause trouble. Who knows why Q does anything?”</p><p>“So there wasn’t some secret message?”</p><p>“If there was, it was so secret that I didn’t get it.”</p><p>“Right.” He scratched his head. “Well, we’d best get back to Voyager.”</p><p>“We?” Buffy asked. “I thought I was supposed to stay and do the whole gentle interrogation thing.”</p><p>“That was before I found out you had a history with Q.”</p><p>Buffy frowned. It didn’t seem like Tom had bought her story, at least not entirely. “So you’ve decided to stop with the trusting because omnipotent beings from another dimension have a questionable interest in me.”</p><p>“Pretty much, yeah,” Tom grinned at her. “That, and anyone who’s willing to joke about dating Q probably needs to pay a visit to the Doctor.”</p><p>“You’re just jealous you’ve never had a research team following you around.”</p><p>“Get in the shuttle, Summers.”</p><p>“Sure you want to trust me with that? I might blow you out of the sky.”</p><p>“Will you?”</p><p>“Wasn’t planning on it.”</p><p>“Then I think I’ll be okay,” Tom said drily.</p><p>“So you’re fine with flying through a dangerous region of subspace with someone you don’t trust while <i>Voyager’s</i> comm systems are down so there’s no backup, but you <i>aren’t</i> fine with leaving me on the surface? Got to say, you aren’t exactly making with the sense here.”</p><p>“You’ve got secrets. You and Illyria both. Still, I think you’d have my back, if there was trouble. But leaving you here? I’m not convinced you’d stay on mission.” Tom flashed her a smile. “Plus the Captain would have my head if she found out that you’d met with Q and I’d left you down here.”</p><p>Buffy nodded. “Makes sense.”</p><p>“Hope so. Hate to turn out to be wrong.”</p><p>Buffy clapped him on the shoulder. “Look on the bright side – where we’re going, if I do turn out to be some kind of traitorous backstabbing backstabber, you’ll be too dead to know about it.”</p><p>“I can see what Q saw in you.”</p><p>“Oh, shut up.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>The journey back to <i>Voyager</i> was uneventful, as much as a journey through a subspace bubble could be. In their separate shuttles, both of them tried to hail the ship as they drew close. There was no response. They still hadn’t fixed the communication array. </p><p>They docked. Janeway and B’Elanna were waiting for them when they arrived. They must have seen the shuttles approaching on the sensors.</p><p>“So, I’ve got some good news, some bad news, and some worse news,” Tom said. “The good news is that we know who’s breaking time. Some species called the Krenim. The bad news is we don’t know where they are. The worse news is that the Nihydron colony was changed when the distortion hit and time was altered. They’re little better than a refugee camp now. Which means that all of the parts in the shuttle don’t exist anymore.”</p><p>B’Elanna sagged. “What, none of it?”</p><p>“’Fraid not,” Tom said apologetically. He looked at the captain. “There’s also some weird news, ma’am.”</p><p>“Let’s hear it.”</p><p>“Summers had a little run in with Q. Apparently they know each other.” </p><p>Janeway and B’Elanna looked at Buffy. “Ensign?” </p><p>“Q took a shine to me, a few years back. Used to take me time travelling. A Federation research group got wind of it and took an interest – that’s how I met Illyria. It got classified so there wouldn’t be a war over it. Thinking was that people wouldn’t be best pleased that the Federation had an actual time traveller. Especially given some of the places we went.”</p><p>Janeway looked like she was having some trouble wrapping her head around that. While Q was known for taking an interest in human affairs, he was the type to just show up and ruin lives. He didn’t normally stick around afterwards. He definitely didn’t take people sightseeing through history. B’Elanna looked like she didn’t believe her at all. Buffy couldn’t blame her. She’d already been suspicious of Illyria. </p><p>There was a moment where Janeway visibly struggled not to ask for details and instead focus on the matter at hand. “What exactly did Q say?”</p><p>“Not a lot. He confirmed it was the Krenim, and then he made some joke about time breaking leaving loose change down the back of the sofa. I asked him if there was an actual point to him showing up, he did the whole cryptic thing of saying that he’d already made his point when actually he’d said basically nothing, and then he went ‘poof’.”</p><p>Janeway looked at Tom, who shrugged. “That’s pretty much what happened. They talked a little bit about Threllvia IV. My guess is they had a messy argument there.”</p><p>“The Threllvia system’s in Romulan space,” Janeway said in surprise.</p><p>“It wasn’t when we were there. For some reason that probably only makes sense if you’re an extra-dimensional loony, he decided to whisk me away to a warzone. Got to see the invasion, back in 2155.” Buffy’s voice was flat. “Didn’t enjoy it.”</p><p>“Q’s not known for dropping by to have a chat.”</p><p>“If he was there for a reason, I missed it. Most likely he just wanted Tom to overhear so that there’d be some mayhem and general suspicion. Finding out I’ve got a classified history with the galaxy’s most annoying entity isn’t exactly the sort of thing that leads to people doing the trusting.”</p><p>Janeway looked at her for a long moment. Then her attention shifted to Tom. “Help B’Elanna in engineering. If we’re short parts, we’ll have to make up for it in manpower. I want to get out of here before the Krenim show up.” Tom nodded, and he and B’Elanna headed off. “One more thing. Send Illyria to my ready room.” She looked back at Buffy. “We need to have a talk.”</p><p>“Am I in trouble?” Buffy asked, after the pair left.</p><p>“Not exactly, Ensign.” Janeway put a hand on Buffy’s elbow for a brief moment. “Walk with me.”</p><p>“If I <i>am</i> in trouble, it’s not my fault. I didn’t wake up one morning a few years ago and think ‘Hey, do you know what my life needs? An omnipotent ass and a squad of scientists following me around like sheep’. Meeting Q was never what I’d call a good time.”</p><p>“I can believe that,” Janeway said mildly. She shot a sidelong glance at Buffy. “Seven asked after you.”</p><p>“You’re kidding.”</p><p>“She thought you’d make an excellent drone. In her words, your biological distinctiveness would be an asset to the Collective.”</p><p>“I’d say tell her I say thanks, but I’m thinking she’d say that appreciation is irrelevant.”</p><p>“She wanted to know what species you are.”</p><p>Buffy blinked. “I didn’t hit her head. Unless the Doctor’s surgery messed with her more than I thought, she should’ve been able to tell I’m human.”</p><p>“Apparently you were able to overpower her. Even though the Doctor removed most of her implants, she’s still stronger than the average human.” </p><p>“Borg drones aren’t exactly known for being handy in a melee. They basically just grab people. Plus she was fresh out of surgery and wearing six inch heels. It wasn’t much of a fight.” Buffy shrugged. “Strength isn’t everything.”</p><p>“True,” Janeway conceded. “Normally, I wouldn’t think twice about it. But B’Elanna came to me while you were away. Showed me the transporter logs for when you and Illyria beamed aboard.”</p><p>Buffy sighed. “Yeah, she told me about that. Is this about her crackpot idea that Illyria’s some of weird corpse alien thing with no organs? ‘Cause I know the log showed me as human.”</p><p>“It does.”</p><p>“So this is just general suspicion then.” Buffy sighed. “Trust Q to show up and ruin my reputation.”</p><p>“I need to trust my crew,” Janeway said gently. “I don’t have the luxury of Starfleet support out here. We don’t have any allies – at least, no allies that we won’t leave behind eventually. All we have is each other.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’m totally on board with that. As you might be able to tell, what with the dashing heroics and stuff I’ve done over the last few years.”</p><p>“I’ve never had cause to doubt that. Even when Tuvok singled you out as a possible head for a Maquis mutiny. But I don’t like my crew having secrets.”</p><p>“It was classified!” Buffy said defensively. “Plus, you know, it was totally irrelevant until it was suddenly all with the relevancy. You can’t tell me that you know everything about every member of our crew. Remember when we found that Cardassian smart bomb that B’Elanna modified back when she was in the Alpha Quadrant? I don’t remember you being all no trusty then.”</p><p>“There’s a difference between not telling me something and keeping a secret.”</p><p>“Is there? Aren’t they, like, literally the same thing?”</p><p>“There’s a lot of difference between something that’s not been shared, and something that has been intentionally hidden. Rewiring a bomb is a long way from time travelling with Q.”</p><p>“I don’t see why. Q promised not show up again. Not my fault I got a version of Q from before that deal. It’s about the same as a bomb you never expected to see again showing up across the galaxy.”</p><p>Janeway frowned. “Maybe I should just come out and say it. Is there anything you want to tell me, Ensign?”</p><p>Buffy toyed with her sleeve. “See, there’s a lot of ways that can go. I could say yes, and then say that I can’t because of federal secrets of whatever. I could say no, and then you <i>might</i> believe that, but you probably wouldn’t. I can tell you a whole mess of things that have nothing at all to do with what’s going on, because who knows, me having a past with Q meant nothing a couple of hours ago but sure seems relevant now. Maybe other stuff will start mattering too.”</p><p>Janeway looked at her for a long moment. “Would it help if I ordered you to tell me?”</p><p>“Uh, going to have to go with a big nope on that one.” A smile flickered across her face. “Never been one for authority. I’d rather you not make me into a mutineer.” She glanced over at Janeway. “I’ve got secrets, Captain. Most of the crew does, or at least the Maquis do. Just so happens I have more than most. Won’t stop me doing my job.”</p><p>“You know most captains would probably confine you to quarters at this point?”</p><p>“I’m kinda surprised you haven’t had me and Illyria thrown in the brig already, if I'm being honest.”</p><p>“I’m sure Tuvok would agree with you.” Janeway put a hand on her shoulder. “Do you know why I’m not going to do that?”</p><p>“My winning personality?”</p><p>“More or less.”</p><p>Buffy’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding. That was a joke.” </p><p>“It didn’t take a genius to work out that Seska didn’t take to being crew on a Starfleet vessel. She didn’t like the way I run things. But when she left, no one went with her. No one followed her.”</p><p>“Pretty sure that had more to do with the fact that she was Cardassian than anything else. That kind of killed any mutiny stone dead. No one wanted to agree with a Cardassian.”</p><p>“You’d be surprised how difficult it is to kill an idea.”</p><p>“I really wouldn’t,” she muttered under her breath.</p><p>“The point is, the seeds of a mutiny were there. It wouldn’t have taken much to make them grow. Seska couldn’t manage it, even before everyone found out she was a Cardassian plant. People would have followed you. If you led, some of them still would.”</p><p>“Going to have to disagree with you on that one.”</p><p>“You have secrets, same as Seska. But when push came to shove, you stayed. Even when there was a chance to leave in a less… spectacular way than she did. You’ve had plenty of opportunity to leave and take a good chunk of my crew with you.”</p><p>“So basically you’re saying that the reason you don’t think I’ll cause trouble is because I haven’t caused trouble yet? There’s a reason they say there’ll be a first time for everything.”</p><p>“I’m hoping you don’t prove me wrong.”</p><p>Buffy didn’t say anything for a long moment. “You’re the second person to say that to me today.”</p><p>Janeway looked momentarily surprised. “Did you prove Tom wrong?” She guessed.</p><p>“Well, I didn’t blow him out of the sky, so no.”</p><p>“Good. If you can keep on not blowing us up, we’ll get along just fine.”</p><p>They walked into the ready room. Illyria was waiting there for them.</p><p>“There was a little run in with Q down on the surface,” Janeway said without preamble. Despite what she’d said to Buffy, she watched Illyria like a hawk, ready to see how she reacted to the news.</p><p>For all the reaction she gave, Illyria might as well have not heard at all. She was as still as a statue. Which probably wasn’t good, Buffy reflected. She knew that Illyria’s default expression was no expression at all – she was practically an iceberg, inscrutable and cold. Janeway, on the other hand, was less familiar with her. She’d probably read this as someone trying to wilfully hide their response. No human was as emotionless as that.</p><p>“What did he say?”</p><p>Janeway turned to Buffy and gestured for her to speak. “He said the people breaking time are called the Krenim. He also made some crack about time breaking leaving loose change down the back of the sofa.”</p><p>“What <i>exactly</i> did he say?” Irritation tinged Illyria’s voice like a distant storm. She hated things to be imprecise.</p><p>“Um, he said that pieces of broken time end up in weird places. They still haven’t found out where all of the pieces went the last time it broke. They thought that there was some down the back of the sofa – who knew they had sofas in the Continuum? – but turns out that that was just some loose change. He seemed to think that was funny. That was about it.”</p><p>Illyria was silent and still, like she had been before. But there was a difference. Earlier, she’d hadn’t reacted because she hadn’t had any reaction to give. She’d been a statue because there had been nothing else for her to be. Now she was shocked, so shocked that she’d basically shut down – which was <i>really</i> not a good sign. Illyria showing anything other than disdain, anger or bitterness wasn’t good, but Buffy had never seen her be shocked before. She hadn’t even realised that the Old One <i>could</i> be shocked.</p><p>Judging by the way Janeway shifted, she also realised that there was something wrong. “What do you make of that?”</p><p>Illyria blinked slowly, like a lizard. She focused on Janeway. “It means we lose.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter Eleven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Not something you want to hear from your expert,” Janeway murmured. “How exactly does Q making a pun about loose change mean that we lose?”</p><p>“And if you say something about loose sounding like lose, then so help me I <i>will</i> throw you out of the nearest airlock,” Buffy added.</p><p>If anything, Illyria didn’t seem to understand the question. “Didn’t you say that he mentioned the last time that time broke?”</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“How do you think we win if time breaks?”</p><p>Janeway pinched the bridge of her nose. “My head’ll thank you if you avoid the rhetorical questions. This is hard enough to understand as it is.”</p><p>“The Krenim have been systematically altering history for centuries. They’ve been breaking time. If Q is telling the truth, that means that at some point time breaks. It doesn’t matter when. That isn’t even a question that makes sense. Eventually, time breaks. That means that we don’t stop them.”</p><p>“The Nihydron colony is barely better than a temporary camp, now. The distortion or whatever the thing that broke the sky was did that. It changed decades of history. Probably more. And you’re telling me that that <i>isn’t</i> the same as time breaking?” Buffy asked.</p><p>“That <i>is</i> time breaking. It is one and the same.” Seeing the two confused stares directed towards her, Illyria began to clarify. “Think of it like this. The Krenim have a bomb. They’ve activated the detonation sequence. The bomb <i>will</i> explode. It will shatter, blow up, <i>break</i>. But not yet. Right now, the fuse is lit, the chemical reaction is beginning. You can consider the distortion as a sensor reading, telling you that the bomb is live. It is in the process of exploding, of <i>breaking</i>, but it hasn’t yet. If you like, you can think of it as a difference of tense. Time is breaking, but it hasn’t yet broken.”</p><p>Janeway nodded slowly. “That makes sense. But I don’t understand how that means that we lose. It hasn’t happened yet and, if I’ve learnt anything in the past few hours, it’s that time isn’t as solid as I’d like it to be. If the explosion hasn’t happened yet there’s still time to disarm the bomb.”</p><p>“Do you believe in predestination, Captain?” Illyria’s eyes slid over to Buffy. “In prophecy?”</p><p>Janeway replied, saying something that Buffy didn’t hear over the sound of blood pounding in her ears. She felt as though her insides had been filled with jagged shards of ice. </p><p>It wasn’t because it had been a long time since she’d heard a prophecy. You couldn’t spend much time around Bajorans without hearing a prophecy or twelve, but all of them were vague and contradictory. But it <i>had</i> been a long time since she’d heard one that she thought might actually be true. Abruptly she was sixteen again. A child with a future that was suddenly much shorter than it should have been. Her chest was tight. She felt trapped in a way that she hadn’t for centuries. It was easy to run when other planets were just a short trip away. It was a lot harder when fate had you in its grip.</p><p>“The Continuum exists outside of time,” Illyria said, responding to whatever Janeway had said. “Past, present and future are all the same to them. If time broke, they’re probably the only ones that would know.” Buffy wondered if she was only one who caught the slight bitterness in her voice.</p><p>“I don’t accept that,” Janeway said firmly. “As long as we’re here, we’ll fight.”</p><p>“If nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do,” Buffy muttered.</p><p>“Nicely put.”</p><p>“Yeah, totally didn’t steal that one.”</p><p>“The first step is to find the Krenim. Once we do that, we can collect data, work out how they’re breaking time. Then we’ll stop them. We’ve beaten the odds before. We can do it again.”</p><p>“We’ll need allies,” Buffy said. “Nythea said that the Krenim used to use temporal science to keep in power, until some people got fed up with them and did the rebellion thing. She said there’d be another war if anyone was found using temporal science again. Plus, you know, she seemed kinda not pleased about the Nihydron going from the kings of the sector to beggars on border worlds. Can’t imagine the rest of the species ‘round here would like it if they suddenly ended up being lower than dirt.”</p><p>“We have to keep ourselves safe first,” Janeway pointed out. “We can’t maroon ourselves in subspace every time the Krenim decide to mess with the past.”</p><p>“Allies would help with that, too. The Nihydron don’t have the tech anymore, but I’m willing to bet that the Zahl’ll be interested in what we have to say. If we can reach out to them, there’s a good chance they’d help. Once we aren’t falling apart and tripping over Borg stuff everywhere we go we’ll be in a lot better shape.”</p><p>Janeway turned to Illyria. “You pushed us into subspace in order to avoid the distortion. Is there another way to shield us? Preferably without burning out our comm systems and leaving us floating dead in space?”</p><p>“Probably.”</p><p>“You’ll have to do better than that, Ensign.” Janeway scowled.</p><p>“I can design shields, but until I know more about how the Krenim are altering history I can’t be certain that they’ll work. Given the circumstances, I can hardly test it. Even then, if I am successful, it will most likely only be a matter of time before they adapt.”</p><p>“I’ll take what I can get. How soon can you have a prototype?”</p><p>Illyria tilted her head to one side. For the briefest fraction of a second, her eyes seemed to unfocus before snapping back onto the captain. “Not soon enough.”</p><p>Harry’s voice came over the internal comms. “Captain, a ship’s just dropped out of warp.”</p><p>Janeway shot Illyria a suspicious look before walking out onto the bridge. Buffy and Illyria followed. “What have you got for me, Harry?”</p><p>“I’m… not sure. There’s a lot of interference from the subspace bubble, and there’s some kind of tachyon field scattering our sensors. I can barely tell it’s there.”</p><p>“Any chance it <i>isn’t</i> the Krenim?”</p><p>“Tachyons are often associated with time travel,” Tuvok pointed out. “Anyone other than the Krenim would be very unlikely.”</p><p>Janeway tapped her combadge. “Bridge to Engineering. How’s the comm system coming?”</p><p>“It isn’t,” B’Elanna replied. “At best, I can get it to you in two days. We don’t have the parts right now.”</p><p>“Two days isn’t good enough. We need to contact them now.”</p><p>“We have some buoys,” Chakotay said. “I don’t know if their signal is strong enough to make it through the subspace bubble, but it’s the best we’ve got.”</p><p>“They’re scanning us, ma’am,” Harry pointed out. “It’s possible their sensors are powerful enough to cut through the astral eddies.”</p><p>“Do it. Tell them our ship was damaged in an attack by the Borg, and that we had to shift ourselves into subspace to avoid them.”</p><p>Tuvok’s fingers moved over the tactical panel, programming the buoys’ message. “Buoys are away.”</p><p>Janeway nodded. “Now we wait.”</p><p>They didn’t have to wait long.</p><p>“They’re locking onto us with some kind of repulsion beam. They’re pushing us free,” Harry reported.</p><p>The ship juddered and shook. “Shields at thirteen percent,” Tuvok said. “If this continues, we’ll be torn apart.”</p><p>“We’re almost out, ma’am.”</p><p>“Reinforce the structural integrity field.” Janeway sat in her chair and leant forward. “We’re in for a bumpy ride.”</p><p>There was a long, drawn out screech, and then nothing. “Minor hull breaches on decks nine and ten,” Tuvok reported. “No casualties.” </p><p>“They’ve deployed their own buoy, Captain,” Harry said in surprise. “They’re giving us coordinates to a planet fifteen light years away. They’re warning us away from this sector. According to them, this is a warzone.”</p><p>“Tom, did the Nihydron mention anything about a war when you were down on the planet?” Janeway asked. Buffy noticed that she pointedly hadn’t asked her.</p><p>“Nothing recent. Just the war with the Krenim, a few generations ago. Then the Zahl filled the power vacuum and everyone else was hit too badly in the war to do much about it.”</p><p>“Looks like at least one ship’s still fighting,” she said grimly. “How are our engines?”</p><p>“We have one-third impulse. Our warp core is still offline due to the Borg modifications.”</p><p>“Set a course for the coordinates they gave us.”</p><p>“That’ll take us decades,” Tom protested.</p><p>“Oh, I have no intention of following through. But we’re in no position to fight right now. Let’s at least look like we’re grateful for the assistance.”</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.”</p><p>“They’re watching us leave,” Harry said.</p><p>“Let them. We’ve got nowhere better to go right now.” Janeway turned to Harry. “Harry, show Ensign Illyria the sensor data.” She looked at Illyria. “I’d like to see what you make of it.”</p><p>“The ship is powered by a temporal core,” Illyria said without even glancing at the workstation. “If I had to guess, I’d say that the core’s energy source is a recursive drive. As I mentioned before, once the probability of a paradox happening becomes high enough, the paradox guarantees its own existence. The Krenim ship appears to be using the energy from this secondary paradox to power itself. That would explain how they’ve managed to insulate themselves from the repeated temporal alterations.”</p><p>“That’s quite the guess.”</p><p>“It’s what I would do, if I were them.”</p><p>“What about the capabilities of the ship itself? Weapons, shields? It took long enough to get here – what are its warp capabilities like? If our drive was up and running, could we outrun it?”</p><p>“I will review the data and prepare a report.”</p><p>“What, no guesses this time?” Janeway said drily.</p><p>“There’s no point in idle speculation.”</p><p>“No. No, I suppose there isn’t.” Buffy knew what Janeway was thinking. The thought was written all over her face. In fact, it was written over the faces of everyone in the room. If Illyria wasn’t willing to speculate about anything as concrete as tactical data, then what had her ‘guess’ been? “Still, it looks like you’ll have to hold off on designing temporal shielding. Our actual shields are more of a priority, for the time being. And our engines.”</p><p>“Our weapons are also functioning at less than optimal efficiency,” Tuvok interjected.</p><p>“Yes, thank you, Tuvok. We need our essentials before anything else. If they alter time again and all we’ve got is temporal shielding, they’ll track us down and destroy us with conventional weaponry. At this point, we’d be beaten by an asteroid field.”</p><p>“Uh, Captain?” Tom asked. “If we don’t have any way to defend ourselves from another distortion, then we won’t remember that any of this ever happened. Don’t we need <i>some</i> kind of shielding?”</p><p>“I was wondering about that,” Buffy asked. “The Nihydron remembered us. They even remembered us leaving due to a spatial distortion, even though, to them, it never happened. I talked with Tom a bit, down on the surface. We both thought it was kinda weird that Nythea was still around, given that history is totally different than it was this morning. I was thinking that, since we shifted ourselves out of standard space time, there must’ve been some sort of shielding effect for <i>them</i>, too. Otherwise our shuttle would’ve just spontaneously appeared on their planet. Or something.” She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “Does that make sense?”</p><p>“Whatever the Krenim’s plans for the timeline are, our presence disturbed them,” Illyria confirmed. “That’s how they located us in the first place. They’re orchestrating history like a conductor, and we were out of tune.”</p><p>“How does that help us?”</p><p>“We made echoes. It’ll take them some time to work out what they are, and how to deal with them. They won’t be altering history any time soon. Not until they know exactly how our presence changed things.”</p><p>“How long do we have?”</p><p>“Impossible to say. To them, the question doesn’t make sense. They are protected from the ravages of time. They have all the time in the universe.” Illyria’s lips curled into something that could only technically be called a smile. “More even than that, if Q’s right.”</p><p>“I’ll take it. Chakotay, have everyone with a level three engineering rating or higher help with repairs. We’ll need all the help we can get on this one.”</p><p>“What about Seven?”</p><p>“Her too. No one knows Borg systems like she does, and we’re still infested with them. Summers will supervise her.”</p><p>“I will?” Buffy asked in surprise.</p><p>“All hands, Ensign. Just because you don’t have the rating to help with repairs doesn’t mean that you can’t help.”</p><p>Buffy nodded, and couldn’t help but feel like she was being tested.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter Twelve</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Babysitting Seven was surprising uneventful, even though the ex-drone had vowed to betray the crew as soon as she got the chance. Buffy didn’t have to stand over her with a phaser to get her to work. She just did it. In fact, she didn’t <i>stop</i> working. She never hesitated or paused. Seven really seemed to have taken the Borg maxim on board. If resistance was futile, then even thinking about it was a waste of time.</p><p>They were in a corridor on deck ten. Seven was repairing some of the damage caused by the Krenim ship pushing them off of their subspace sandbar as well as stripping out some of the leftover Borg tech. They were alone. Conspicuously so, Buffy thought. The job was big enough that there should have been at least another couple of engineers around. Given that B’Elanna was in charge of the roster, Buffy wondered who the chief engineer was more suspicious of, her or the drone. </p><p>As worrying as it might be to know that someone who’d been her friend for years probably didn’t trust her, it definitely wasn’t her <i>biggest</i> worry. The thing that worried her most was something that Illyria said. She wasn’t the only one, she knew - most of the crew was probably freaking out about the fact that Illyria had known technical details about the Krenim ship without even having to glance at sensor data. Buffy didn’t care about that. Something else that Illyria had said bothered her far more.</p><p>
  <i>“It’s what I would do, if I were them.”</i>
</p><p>Illyria had been so matter-of-fact as she said it. It seemed obvious that Illyria had put some thought into doing exactly what the Krenim were doing now. Of course she had. Illyria had been a god, with armies that stretched from horizon to horizon. Now she wasn’t. Anyone who knew anything about Illyria at all knew that she’d never stopped grieving her loss. There were always those who didn’t know how to move on.</p><p>Buffy had been surprised, centuries ago, when Illyria had said that she didn’t know how time was being broken. The Old One rarely admitted to anything less than omniscience. But now it seemed as though she knew <i>exactly</i> what was going on.</p><p>She couldn’t help but think that Illyria was after the Krenim not because she wanted to stop them from breaking time, but because she wanted their technology to herself. Illyria had been complaining for centuries that she was limited by the Federation’s level of technology. As brilliant as Illyria was, it might be that she just couldn’t make a machine that could do what she wanted.</p><p>There wasn’t even anything that Buffy could <i>do</i> about it. If they were going to have a chance of stopping the Krenim, they needed Illyria. In any case, she could hardly go to Janeway and say ‘Hey, you know how Illyria’s weird? It’s because she’s a demon god from the dawn of time and I think she wants to bring back her empire’. There was no way that that would go down well. She couldn’t even talk to Illyria and try and get her side of the story, at least not alone. She didn’t doubt that B’Elanna would try and keep them apart.</p><p>To take her mind off of all of that, she decided to try and talk to Seven. “Hey, did the Borg ever dabble in time travel?”</p><p>“Once.”</p><p>“Didn’t work out so well, huh?”</p><p>“It was considered an unnecessary expenditure of resources and that avenue of assimilation was discontinued.”</p><p>“So you’re saying that, if the Borg got the hands on the time ship thingy, they wouldn’t go around assimilating whole timelines?”</p><p>“It would be unnecessary. Assimilation is inevitable.”</p><p>“How come? What happened on your big trip that was so bad that you scrapped the whole plan?”</p><p>“I was not involved in the initiative.”</p><p>Buffy rolled her eyes. “I mean you, Borg, rather than you, Seven. There’s still a difference, at least for the moment.”</p><p>“It was unsuccessful.”</p><p>“Any more details? Come on. Spill. You know you want to.”</p><p>“No.” That, it seemed, was that. No one could call Seven chatty. The ex-drone turned her head to look at Buffy. “I have finished repairing the plasma grid on this deck.”</p><p>Buffy sighed and pushed herself to her feet. “Okay then. Guess we’d better go and find B’Elanna and see whatever wonderful new assignment she can cook up for us.”</p><p>They walked to the turbolift. Before they got a chance to call for it, though, the doors slid open and Illyria walked out.</p><p>“What’re you doing here, Blue?” Buffy asked in surprise. ‘Does B’Elanna know you’re here?’ was what she meant.</p><p>“I require Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“To design temporal shielding. The work will go significantly faster if there are two of us.”</p><p>“That’s funny, because I thought Janeway specifically told you <i>not</i> to make that.” Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “Which is why you want Seven, isn’t it? She’s the only engineer on board who’d be on board with a little bit of mutiny.”</p><p>“Correct.”</p><p>“Well, that’s a little bit of a problem. See, I’m supposed to be looking after big baby Borg here, and I’m not a fan of mutiny. Captain’s right – any ship that can alter time probably wouldn’t have a problem blowing us out of the sky if they caught us causing trouble again. Just because Q delayed them this time doesn’t mean that he’ll do the same again.”</p><p>“If we don’t even begin designing shielding until after repairs are completed, we’ll be too late. The Krenim may have all the time in the universe, but we definitely do not.”</p><p>“Then you’d better get on with the repairs, hadn’t you? Less with the chatting and more with the fixing makes everyone happy.” Seeing that Illyria didn’t agree, Buffy ushered them back down the corridor they’d come from. “Come on. If we’re talking rebellion, let’s not do it somewhere that anyone can pass by and hear us.”</p><p>Seven, who had been watching the conversation with an air of mild puzzlement, fell into step with Illyria as they walked. “What makes you believe that I’ll go against the wishes of the captain?”</p><p>“Because I can get you to a shuttle.”</p><p>“Hold up. You’re planning on helping her escape? We barely got away from the Borg last time! We’re still scooping weird glowing green tech out of everywhere! The last thing we need is them swarming around here assimilating everything in sight. Seven says the Borg have messed with time travel before. If they get their hands on the Krenim ship, then everything could go, like, <i>really</i> bad.”</p><p>“Her short-term memories can be erased. A simple operation on her left parietal-“</p><p>“And now you want to lobotomise her? Come on, Blue, even you-“</p><p>“I can feel it.” Illyria’s voice was low and quiet, but it had the force of a whiplash. Buffy’s heated protest died incomplete. “I can feel the Krenim ship from here. It’s a supernova whirling away inside me, hollowing me out. My mind is on fire. My flesh is being flayed from my bones. If I can’t find a way to protect myself, I’ll simply melt away.”</p><p>“<i>That’s</i> why you never built a, a whatsit, a recursive drive or whatever the Krenim are using. You’re too afraid to die,” Buffy said softly.</p><p>Illyria turned to face her. Her blue eyes looked like they had been sculpted from shards of shattered ice. “I am not afraid of death. I’ve died before. I’ve lived seven lives at once, and at the end I choked the life out of myselves so that I would know what it looks like to die. When they say that death is like a sleep, they were only guessing. I <i>know</i>. But that was then, and this is now. Here and now, I am alive.” </p><p>“I get that,” Buffy said. Her voice was quiet. “Believe me, I get that. Fine. I’ll talk to Janeway. But you can’t have Seven.” She broke into a sheepish grin. “Seems like this probably isn’t the type of conversation we should have in front of other people. Seven probably isn’t the sort of person that should know that you aren’t exactly totally human. No offence.”</p><p>“None taken.” Seven sounded bemused.</p><p>Illyria waved a hand to dismiss what Buffy was saying. “I’m sure she already knows. It’s difficult to pretend to be human when I feel like my bones have been replaced with molten metal.”</p><p>“Thanks for the image. Still, Seven, we’d appreciate it if you didn’t go spreading the news. Not that I think you’re the gossiping type or anything.” Buffy darted a glance at Illyria. “’Sides, there’s always a chance that Illyria will do something stupid and let you go if you keep quiet.”</p><p>Seven raised an eyebrow a few millimetres. “Understood.” Buffy wondered if the Borg understood the concept of blackmail. The species they assimilated would know about it, of course, but the Borg would never choose a roundabout plan of attack if there was a direct path available. They probably thought that blackmail was too inefficient. It would probably depend on how quickly Seven picked up humanity.</p><p>Given the way her luck ran, Buffy really wouldn’t be surprised if she turned out to be a quick study. Even someone who thought that all social interaction was irrelevant could work out that she could leverage what she knew about Illyria to her advantage.</p><p>Then Buffy tilted her head to one side. She shared a look with Illyria. “You finished already, Blue? I guess B’El was exaggerating when she said that the life of an engineer was never done,” she said loudly. On silent feet she stalked to the end of the corridor. “It’s nice of you drop by and give us a hand, but you really didn’t need to.” She pressed herself flat against the wall.</p><p>“There are a lot of repairs on this deck.” Illyria’s tone was mild and conversational. It carried none of the ferocity or force that it had earlier. “Even if Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One is dangerous, leaving you to do it all by yourselves seems unnecessary.”</p><p>Buffy poked her head around the corner. Tom leapt back, startled. “Gah!”</p><p>“Hey, Tom,” Buffy said brightly. “What’re you doing sneaking around…” She trailed off with frown. “Is that a medical tricorder?”</p><p>Tom looked down at the medical tricorder in his hands. “Uh, no?”</p><p>“Sure looks like a medical tricorder to me. What’re you doing carrying one of those around, Tom?”</p><p>“B’Elanna wanted me to check Seven’s work. You know, because you don’t have a level three engineering rating, so if she was busy sabotaging the ship you might not know. I, uh, must’ve grabbed the wrong tricorder.”</p><p>“Tom?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“You’re a terrible liar.”</p><p>“The Starfleet inquiry I fooled probably disagrees. The only reason they got me was because I confessed.”</p><p>“So this has nothing to do with B’Elanna’s loopy theory that Illyria’s some kind of alien, huh?” Buffy <i>really</i> hoped that Seven wouldn’t say anything.</p><p>“No, of course not!” Tom protested hotly. He poked his head around the corner to look at Illyria. “Although, if you don’t mind, I could do a quick scan and put all those theories to rest. Just while I’m here with this tricorder I accidentally picked up.”</p><p>“You cool with that, Blue?” Buffy asked over her shoulder.</p><p>“I have nothing to hide.”</p><p>After a moment’s hesitation, Buffy stepped aside. “Well, you heard her. Scan away.”</p><p>Tom did just that. Then he frowned.</p><p>“Well?” Buffy kept her voice carefully neutral.</p><p>“Human.”</p><p>“Told you.”</p><p>“I assume you’re satisfied that I haven’t tampered with the tricorder,” Illyria commented.</p><p>“Hmm? Oh, I checked it myself.”</p><p>“She might be kinda kooky, but she’s a human kook.”</p><p>“Right,” Tom said. He seemed surprised. Given Illyria’s display on the bridge, Buffy couldn’t blame him. She wondered how Illyria had managed to fool the tricorder. As convincing as her human disguise was, it should fall apart under a close look. She didn’t have a heartbeat, for one thing. She was just glad that her Slayer hearing had let her catch the arrival of the turbolift. If she hadn’t known Tom was there, he would’ve overheard their conversation and the whole situation would have gone sideways fast. “Well, you still shouldn’t be here. If you’ve finished, you should report back to B’Elanna.”</p><p>“She seemed busy dealing with all of the new engineers Captain Janeway conscripted. There didn’t seem-“</p><p>“She is helping me repair the plasma grid,” Seven interrupted suddenly. “It was heavily damaged. The work will go significantly faster if there are two of us.”</p><p>Buffy was glad that Tom wasn’t looking at her. The look of surprise that flashed across her face when at Seven’s lie would definitely have given the game away.</p><p>“Tell Lieutenant Torres that we have everything covered here,” Illyria said, seamlessly following Seven. If she was surprised, she didn’t show it. She had a much better handle on her expressions than Buffy did. “If we’re to follow the captain’s orders, this is the most efficient allocation of resources.”</p><p>Tom paused. For a second it looked like he was going to argue, but then he looked down at the tricorder in his hands. “Okay. I’ll tell her. But don’t say I didn’t warn you, if she comes up here and yells at you.”</p><p>“I think I can survive that,” Illyria said blandly.</p><p>Tom left. As soon as the doors to the turbolift slid shut, Seven turned to face Illyria. “You are Borg?” Only the faintest upward intonation at the end suggested that it was a question.</p><p>Buffy chuckled briefly. It wasn’t an unreasonable guess – Illyria did talk like a Borg drone – but it was just so far from the truth that she couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, right. And I’m a Ferengi.”</p><p>Illyria ignored her, and gave Seven a long, considering look. “In a manner of speaking.”</p><p>“Wait, <i>what</i>?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter Thirteen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Being Borg is a binary choice. Either one is Borg, or one is not,” Seven said firmly.</p><p>“You’d better go with ‘not’, Blue. I <i>so</i> don’t have the ears to be Ferengi,” Buffy added.</p><p>“Are you sure about that?” Illyria asked Seven, ignoring Buffy completely. “You’re not part of the Collective, but you still say that you’re Borg.”</p><p>“Irrelevant. A drone that has been separated from the Collective is still a drone.”</p><p>“There are drones on record who would disagree.”</p><p>“They are degenerate cases.”</p><p>“Yeah, as fun as it isn’t to see you two bouncing off each other, I’d really like an answer,” Buffy interrupted.</p><p>“I have been investigating the temporal alterations in this region of space for a long time. The Federation has very little information about the Delta Quadrant – except that it’s the home of the Borg. It’s been known for a long time that the Borg use a chroniton field to survive travelling through transwarp conduits. It would be fairly easy to use that technology to alter history.”</p><p>“Sure, but if you can catch a case of Borg just by studying them then Tom’s a TV serial from the 1930’s,” Buffy pointed out. Privately, she wondered exactly what had happened during the Borg’s single attempt at messing with history, and whether Illyria had been involved somehow.</p><p>Illyria continued to ignore her entirely. “However, the existence of the Borg has only been commonly accepted for a few years. Before that they were relegated to the realm of fringe science. Still, it was the only information about this quadrant I had. I collated all the available data, formed research teams – I even arranged funding for expeditions, to try and gather first-hand information.”</p><p>Buffy opened her mouth to ask Illyria if she was planning on getting to the point at some point, but then she caught Seven’s expression and closed it again. Superficially, the ex-drone seemed just as self-composed as she always did. But she got a sudden sense of fragility, hidden behind a mountain of pride. Something Illyria had just said had hit a nerve.</p><p>“You don’t remember me, do you?” Illyria asked. Her voice was oddly gentle. She'd obviously seen the same thing as Buffy. “It’s not surprising. You were a child, and I looked quite different at the time.”</p><p>“You are claiming to be responsible for the expedition that led to my assimilation?” Seven’s tone was neutral, as though she attached no emotional weight to her question. Even so, the tension in her shoulders and the clenching of her jaw told a different story. </p><p>“I knew you when your name was Annika,” Illyria confirmed. “Your parents were colleagues of mine. I championed their expedition proposal to the Federation Council on Exobiology. Without my support, there’s no doubt that they’d never have left the Alpha Quadrant and they’d never have encountered the Borg.”</p><p>Seven’s jaw worked silently for several seconds. She might have been working out what she wanted to say – Illyria had definitely just dropped a bombshell on her – but Buffy suspected that she was probably trying to figure out exactly how she <i>felt</i> about it. Seven was new to emotions. She seemed to have gotten a handle on pride, disdain, and loss pretty quickly, but this was bound to stir up more complicated feelings.</p><p>After a while, it seemed that Seven had settled on repressing them. “That doesn’t answer the question. I detected faint energy signatures consistent with Borg implants while you were being scanned.”</p><p>“Eventually, the Federation came to accept the existence of the Borg, and they created a task force dedicated to fighting them, if they ever invaded our quadrant. I was a natural choice. I designed a weapon which was supposed to destabilise chroniton fields, so that cubes would be destroyed if they entered a transwarp conduit. I tested it at Wolf 359. It was unsuccessful, but the Borg noticed our ship and sent several drones after us. They cut through our hull. They would have assimilated the crew, and the Federation would have lost what little tactical advantage we had. So I killed them.”</p><p>“I find that hard to believe,” Seven said. “By your own admission, your weapon was a failure. A single unimatrix would be more than capable of assimilating the crew of a science vessel. I doubt you could overpower them”</p><p>“I don’t think she’s talking about the drones,” Buffy said grimly.</p><p>Illyria inclined her head in a slow nod. “I killed my crew. If the Borg weren’t responsible for the breaking of time – which seemed likely, by that point – then it was imperative that they not learn of it. I’m not the only one who can make temporal shielding. If the Borg ever get the technology to alter time on the same scale as the Krenim, then time breaking will be the least of our worries.” Illyria clasped her hands behind her back. “Then I killed the drones.”</p><p>“Elaborate.” Seven didn’t seemed bothered by the death of the drones at all – for her, it seemed more like an intellectual exercise. She was more interested in <i>how</i> Illyria had done it.</p><p>“I have some skill with violence.” Illyria’s eyes slid over to Buffy. “I suppose you might say that I’ve got a gift for death.”</p><p>Something cold and hard formed in Buffy’s stomach. “No. No. You don’t get to say that. Not to me.”</p><p>Seven’s gaze flicked from Illyria to Buffy and back again. For a moment she seemed curious, but she decided against asking anything. “If you weren’t assimilated, then there’s no reason for the Borg energy signatures. The answer is simple. You are not Borg.”</p><p>“I’ve spent more than two hundred years working with sensors, so that I could pinpoint the origin of the temporal alterations. But, as you know, I’m not human. There is no one like me. No one alive. I can make myself look like anything I want, but it’s only a superficial disguise. It goes no further than the skin. So, all the time that I’ve been designing better sensors, I’ve also been working out how to fool them. It is much easier to accomplish one’s goals if no one knows you exist. No one can stop a ghost. On that day at Wolf 359, I saw an opportunity and I took it. The Borg have a cranial implant they use to adjust their bioelectric field, so that they can pass through force-fields. It took only a little work to reconfigure them so that they could trick sensors. There were some other implants that I thought were useful – neural processors, a few of the bionetic implants-“</p><p>“You’re telling me you killed your crew, killed some drones and then, what, ripped out their implants? You going to say that you put their organs on ice and sold them on the black market too?” Buffy said in disgust.</p><p>Illyria seemed vaguely confused by her response. “It was necessary.”</p><p>“Sure it was. There are billions of species you could claim to be. Hey, it’s not like Starfleet would even blink if you told them you were a parasite or something. They’ve met the Trill. There’s even a shapeshifter working on Deep Space Nine. You just don’t want people to know that you exist.”</p><p>“You efficiently used the resources at hand in the pursuit of your goal,” Seven commented. She didn’t seem bothered by the fact that Illyria had pulled implants out of dead drones – which made sense, when Buffy thought about it. The Borg always picked up their dead. She wouldn’t be surprised if they recycled. “But that doesn’t make you Borg. We aren’t the only species that use cybernetics.”</p><p>“I’m not part of the Collective, it’s true. But then, neither are you. There are those who would say that we’re in the same boat. Literally and figuratively.”</p><p>Seven shifted slightly where she stood. “I am not one of them.”</p><p>Illyria just smiled faintly.</p><p>“Right.” Buffy clapped her hands together. “Well, Illyria, you’d better scoot and go do – I don’t know, whatever engineering things engineers do. Now that we’ve finished on this deck, Seven, we should go see what fun things B’Elanna can come up with for us. If we’re lucky, she might not have us clean out the holodecks with toothbrushes.”</p><p>Illyria looked at her a second before stalking past them without a word. Buffy sighed, and ushered Seven to the turbolift. Once the doors slid shut, she glanced over at the drone. Seven’s gaze was fixed directly in front of her. Whatever emotions the conversation with Illyria had stirred up had sunk beneath the surface again. “D’you remember being human? How old were you, when you assimilated? She said you were a child.”</p><p>“I was six years old.”</p><p>Buffy closed her eyes. “<i>Prophets,</i>” she breathed.</p><p>“I don’t remember being human. The captain told me that my name was Annika Hansen, but I don’t remember her. I am Borg.”</p><p>“She should’ve known better.”</p><p>“Explain.”</p><p>Buffy shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.” The turbolift arrived at Engineering. Seven began to walk out, but Buffy stepped in front of her. “Change of plans. Bridge.” The doors slid shut, and the turbolift began to ascend. Seven looked down at her. She seemed slightly puzzled, but not enough to ask her what was going on. </p><p>They walked out onto the bridge. Chakotay was sitting in the captain’s chair. Janeway was nowhere to be seen. When he saw them walk in, he opened his mouth to ask them what they were doing there. Buffy spoke before he got the chance. “Hey, is the captain around?”</p><p>“She’s in the ready room. Why-“</p><p>“Thanks,” Buffy interrupted, already moving towards the ready room. She knew this was a breach of protocol and she’d probably get in trouble for it later, but she didn’t care. Chances were she’d be in trouble for a lot of other things too.</p><p>Janeway was poring over a PADD when they walked in. Buffy remembered that she’d been a science officer before she’d moved into command – probably the only reason she wasn’t rooting around an engine right now was because captains just didn’t do that sort of thing. She looked up when the pair walked in. She frowned. “Can I help you, Ensign?”</p><p>“Um, you know how I mentioned that I’ve got some secrets?”</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“Wanna hear some of them?”</p><p>“Yes.” Janeway glanced at Seven. Although she didn’t say it outright, her body language was clearly asking what she had to do with any of this.</p><p>“Well, for one thing, I lied about Q taking me time travelling.”</p><p>“I appreciate the honesty, Ensign, but why the sudden change of heart?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Let’s just say that someone said some things that reminded me of some other things that I’d really rather not remember. Basically I’m having a bad day, and I really don’t need people I like not doing the trusting thing on top of everything else.”</p><p>“Okay.” Janeway sat back in her chair. She looked like she had a thousand questions, and was having some trouble deciding where to start. Eventually, she asked “If Q didn’t take you to time travelling, what happened at Threllvia IV?”</p><p>“Oh, we were both there. There just wasn’t any time travelling going on.” Buffy smiled bitterly. “I look pretty good for someone with a couple of centuries on Tuvok, huh?”</p><p>To her credit, Janeway didn’t look like she didn’t believe her. She had the same expression as she’d had when Illyria was trying to explain temporal paradoxes to her. She looked like she was trying to wrap her head around something so far out of her frame of reference that it just made no sense to her. “<i>How?</i>”</p><p>“You know the thing that people do where they die? I don’t do that.” Technically not true, but it made it slightly easier to follow.</p><p>Janeway rubbed her temples. “I remember reading a report by Captain Kirk. He claimed to have met someone, a human, who was thousands of years old. I never believed it.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’m not that old.”</p><p>Janeway smiled briefly. “I know it’s impolite, but-“</p><p>“I’ll hit four hundred in a few years,” Buffy said, returning the smile. “Don’t worry about it. I got over the whole aging thing a long time ago. Being sensitive about that kind of thing is for people who go grey.”</p><p>“Why are you telling me this?” Janeway asked again. “As I recall, Kirk’s immortal <i>did</i> eventually die, but it wasn’t until after his death that he revealed his existence. It was thought to be too dangerous if people knew about the existence of a man like that. I’m inclined to agree.”</p><p>“Yeah, but Wilson was a big old grump.”</p><p>“Wilson?” Janeway’s eyes widened. “Wait. You <i>knew</i> him?”</p><p>“Sure. He was Wilson when we met. I mean, we also called him the Immortal, but that was a bit of a joke. We were… close, for a while.” Buffy shrugged. “He had a point. There’ll always be people who’re interested in someone who doesn’t die. There’s a good chance the interest is the kind of thing that leads to them making with the cutting up and me with the screaming. But generally people don’t believe that you’re immortal. If you’re careful, it isn’t hard to hide. Most times people’ll look the other way all by themselves.”</p><p>“Then why are you telling me?”</p><p>“’Cause I’m bad at lying. It’s easier for me to just not tell people stuff – if they figure out that I’m keeping secrets, I’m pretty bad at coming up with something they’ll believe. You should hear some of the things I’ve come up with. Mice figure prominently.”</p><p>“So this has nothing to do with this report I have which says that Ensign Illyria is completely human and there’s no sign that the Doctor or the medical tricorder was tampered with?”</p><p>Buffy was surprised. “I thought for sure B’Elanna was the mastermind behind that one. I figured you’d either just come right out and ask or do some sort of secret subtle thing.”</p><p>Janeway didn’t reply. She just leant forward, cupped her face in one hand, and waited for Buffy to speak. </p><p>“I don’t like lying to my friends. This ship’s been my home for the past four years. Sure, there’re are those who’ll tell me that I should probably keep my secrets, but I don’t want to be the sort of person who keeps secrets just because. That sort of thing’ll eat you alive, if you let it. I’ve seen it happen.”</p><p>“I’ll ask again. Does this have anything to do with Illyria?”</p><p>“No, ma’am. Just me. Oh, I won’t say that talking with her didn’t spark a few things, but no. This is about me not wanting to look in the mirror and see something I don’t like. I’m way too pretty for self-esteem issues.” She looked at Seven. “I’m human, Captain. I’m not big on being a degenerate case.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>'Kirk’s immortal’, Flint, comes from the original series episode ‘Requiem for Methuselah’. The name Wilson comes from ‘The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume One’, where he’s known as Wilson Evergreen. I own neither of these works. Please don’t sue me for using them.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter Fourteen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Janeway looked from Buffy to Seven and back again. For a moment it looked like she was going to ask them something, but then the moment passed and the captain remained silent. It was only after another few long seconds of scrutiny that she spoke. “Janeway to Lieutenant Tuvok.”</p><p>His reply came back over the comm system. “Tuvok here, Captain.”</p><p>“Escort Seven to Engineering. I’m sure that B’Elanna could use some help down there.”</p><p>“Aye, captain.” Seconds later, Tuvok stepped into the room.”</p><p>Seven clasped her hands behind her back. “I believe my skills would be put to better use if I were to design temporal shielding.”</p><p>Janeway raised an eyebrow. “Do you now.”</p><p>“It is inefficient to dedicate all of one’s resources to dealing with one problem at a time.”</p><p>Janeway drummed her fingers on her desk absently. “We wouldn’t want to be inefficient, would we? Fine. You’ve already taken over Cargo Bay 2. Talk to B’Elanna. Have whatever equipment you need moved there.” For a second, it looked like she was going to add something, but she didn’t. “Dismissed.” When Tuvok and Seven left the room, she looked back at Buffy. “What am I supposed to do with you, Ensign?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “If I were you, I’d probably shut me away in my quarters until things calm down a bit. I know you’re used to dealing with wacky space stuff, but I’m kind of an out of context problem.”</p><p>“Unfortunately, I don’t think I have the luxury. I need your help. Besides, I think I’ll run into some problems with my crew if I lock you away.”</p><p>Buffy frowned. “If you think there’ll be a mutiny over me being confined to my quarters, you’re really overestimating how popular I am. ‘Specially after the last couple of days.”</p><p>“You seem to have developed some kind of rapport with Seven. Even if we didn’t-“</p><p>“Hold up. What now? My rapport with Seven is basically me knocking her down and then giving her a pep talk while I sat on her.”</p><p>“So you expect me to believe that she volunteered to design temporal shielding all by herself?”</p><p>“I mean, she’s not wrong. We’re practically coming apart at the seams, here. If we spend too much time trying to stop the ship falling apart then there’s going to be trouble when the Krenim start up again.”</p><p>“The Borg aren’t known for their initiative. You said so yourself – she doesn’t seem to even understand the concept of disobedience. But I told her to report to Engineering and instead she brought up her own ideas.”</p><p>“You’re the one who wanted her to be human. Seems kinda unfair to be down on her now that she’s figured out ‘no’. It’s not like she even <i>really</i> said ‘no’. It was more of a ‘but’. ‘Sides, if you hadn’t agreed with her you could’ve just told her to go to Engineering anyway. She’d have gone if you’d pressed the issue.” </p><p>“Even so, disagreeing about how to go about something isn’t far from refusing to do it at all. I spoke to Seven while you were down on the planet with Tom. She didn’t mention anything about temporal shielding then. The only thing that’s changed since then is that you, her and Ensign Illyria were alone on deck ten for a while. Which leads me to the other issue.”</p><p>“Still not convinced we’ve got a first issue.”</p><p>“Ensign Illyria,” Janeway continued as though Buffy had spoken. </p><p>“I thought Tom’s stunt with the tricorder sorted that out.”</p><p>“She used our communications array to warp subspace around us. B’Elanna says she’s never seen anything like that. Neither have I. You told me she was in Starfleet research, and the Maquis records support that. But there’s also a rumour going around that she was at Wolf 359. That wasn’t a surprise attack – everyone who was there knew what they were getting into. It’s no place for a researcher. Unless they were taking their research with them.”</p><p>Buffy scratched her head. “That sounded like a question. I mean, technically it didn’t, but it sounded like you were trying to ask a question without actually doing the questioning thing. If you’re asking whether there’s going to be an issue between Illyria and Seven, I can safely say no to that one. Illyria doesn’t really hold grudges.” It wasn’t hard to get on Illyria’s bad side – pretty much the entire universe started out there. But if anyone ever became more than usually objectionable, they usually ended up with a bad case of being dead. “But if you’re asking whether she was doing research at Wolf 359 – ask her. That sort of stuff is massively classified. I’m not exactly in the loop.”</p><p>“You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe that. She left Starfleet to join the Maquis. To join <i>you</i>. When the spatial distortion hit, you were together. You were the one who called to be transported directly to Engineering. You were the one who stopped B’Elanna from stopping her from doing something that is either extremely classified or extremely experimental. When Tom went looking for her earlier, she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. She was with you. Against orders. I understand that your history is… <i>complicated</i>, but I find it hard to believe that you don’t know something about hers.”</p><p>“Was there a question there? Seemed you were just going with the generally lack of trustage.”</p><p>“Flint – Kirk’s immortal, Wilson, whatever you want to call him – designed an android. It was flawed, but plenty of prototypes are.”</p><p>Buffy broke out into a huge grin. “You think Blue’s a <i>robot</i>? Some kind of next generation android? Ha, she’s going a real kick out of that one.” Historically, Buffy was the one who got mistaken for androids. “You’re way off base with that. Believe me, she totally isn’t a robot.”</p><p>“Then would you like to explain to me how she knew technical specifications about the Krenim’s ship without having to look at our sensor data? Or how she managed to crack a couple of Mulchaey’s ribs when she pushed him aside in Engineering? A lot of strange things happened when the distortion hit, but they were all to do with temporal alterations. Even all of the cases of space sickness, the Doctor tells me. But there's nothing else even close to what happened to her. I can’t find anything figure out how any of it’s related to time breaking.” Janeway pushed her PADD across the table. “Maybe you’d like to have a look.”</p><p>“No thanks.”</p><p>To Buffy’s surprise, for a moment it seemed like Janeway was struggling to remain stern and not laugh. Then she got herself under control. “Excuse me, Ensign?”</p><p>“Well, what do you want me to say? I’ve already told you I’m not planning on mutinying. I’m not planning on marshalling Seven and Illyria on some kind of coup. I came here and told you who I am. You already know who Illyria is. But just because she’s a bit weird you’re making with the suspicion. Look, everyone on board can tell you Illyria’s weird. She’s been weird for years. You’re just freaking out ‘cause the rest of the universe has gone weird too. If time wasn’t breaking we’d both still be doing our jobs and no one would care.” Buffy exhaled noisily. “Look, if I wanted the ship, I’d have the ship. If I wanted the crew dead, they’d be dead. I get that you’re suspicious. If a girl turned up in my office and said she was nearly four hundred years old I would be too. But I’ve told you my secret. Illyria’s are classified – if we get home you can take it up with whatever bit of Starfleet you like. But really the only choice you’ve got is between putting us in the brig and letting us do our jobs. This doubting limbo thing is getting real old.”</p><p>For a long moment, Janeway looked at her so intently that Buffy thought that she might take a third option and throw her out an airlock instead. Then her expression softened. “Well said.”</p><p>“Really? I was just making with the rambling.”</p><p>“There’s another option too, of course. I know we don’t have a counsellor on board, but the Doctor’s subroutines will do in a pinch. Normally, if someone came to me and said the sort of things you just said, a trip to Sickbay would be my first call. Normally.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’ve got to say that I’m surprised you’re taking the immortality thing so well. People tend to freak out. Or go straight to the dissection.”</p><p>“It fits with the available information. You’ve obviously got a lot of tactical experience, but you’re happy flying below the radar. You fall into command almost without thinking about it, and then deny that you ever were in the first place. Tom told me that you pretty much took charge down on Nikrenna. Plus there’s the fact that you overpowered Seven. If I remember, Fli- <i>Wilson</i> was stronger than your average person too. It makes sense, right up until one starts thinking too closely about it. General consensus is that Kirk made up a lot of his reports. No one seriously believed that someone stole his first officer’s brain, for example. But nevertheless here you are. Historians would have a field day.”</p><p>“History’s overrated. If we get home, I’d really like to not be stuck in a dusty museum somewhere. I’m fine with the crew knowing – I trust them, and way out here no one cares about the last few hundred years of history in the Alpha Quadrant – but once we get back I’d rather just disappear.”</p><p>“I think that can-“ Janeway began.</p><p>She was interrupted by Harry’s voice on the comms. “Captain to the bridge.”</p><p>Janeway stood, and gestured for Buffy to go first. Buffy rolled her eyes. “If there’s going to be age before beauty jokes, we’re going to have a riot on our hands.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t dream of it, Ensign.” They walked out onto the bridge. “What is it, Harry?”</p><p>“We’re reading a ship at the limits of our sensor range.  Bearing 021-mark-119.”</p><p>“The Krenim?”</p><p>“Hard to say. There isn’t the same tachyon scattering field as the other ship. We haven’t had the time to examine the sensor logs and try to clean up the data. It’s ahead of us, so if it <i>is</i> the Krenim then it isn’t the same ship. But they’re heading towards us. They’ll be here in about two hours at their current speed.” </p><p>“We’re in no position to fight them, Captain,” Tuvok pointed out. </p><p>“We can’t outrun them either,” Tom added. “But there’s an asteroid belt a few hundred thousand kilometres from here. Most of the larger asteroids have paramagnetic cores – they’d hide us from their sensors.”</p><p>For a moment Janeway hesitated, torn between caution and her natural drive towards diplomacy. “Can we manage an asteroid field? Tom can manoeuvre around the larger ones, but can our shields cope with micrometeoroids?”</p><p>“I don’t believe so, Captain,” Tuvok replied.</p><p>“Has B’Elanna gutted our shuttles for parts yet?” Buffy asked.</p><p>Janeway looked at her in surprise. “I don’t know. Chakotay?”</p><p>“I don’t think so. Given our current circumstances, I think she’s saving them for a last resort.”</p><p>“With the right shield frequencies, we can send a shuttle in ahead of <i>Voyager</i> to clear the way. Sort of like an icebreaker.”</p><p>“Would that work?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “It has before.”</p><p>“Has it?” Janeway said softly. “Well, let’s get to it. Report to the shuttle bay, Ensign. Chakotay will go with you.”</p><p>Buffy fought the urge to sigh. If Janeway was having Chakotay keep an eye on her, then it looked as though she still didn’t completely trust her. “Yes, ma’am.”</p><p>Janeway seemed to read her mind. “You’ll need someone to monitor the shields while you’re flying. Besides, protocol dictates at least two people per mission.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>It was about thirty seconds after the shuttle left the ship when Chakotay spoke. “You were in the ready room for a long time.”</p><p>Buffy nodded. For a moment she was tempted to say nothing at all – he hadn’t actually asked a question – but she owed Chakotay more than that. He’d been her captain before Janeway ever had. “Mhm. I told the captain that I’ve got a big birthday coming up, and then she accused Illyria of being an android made by my ex.”</p><p>Chakotay’s face went completely blank as he tried to process what she’d said. “I thought your birthday was in January,” he said eventually.</p><p>“It is.”</p><p>“So when you say ‘coming up’, you mean more than six months away.”</p><p>“Sure. I wasn’t talking about that birthday, though. Hitting one of those big numbers in about six years.”</p><p>She could see him doing math in his head, trying to work out what that would be. Apparently he came to a conclusion and then decided that it would indelicate to come right out and say it. “Smart to book some time off years in advance.”</p><p>“So you’re just gonna ignore the thing about Illyria being an android, huh?”</p><p>“I was working myself up to it.”</p><p>“Cool. Let me know when you’re there.”</p><p>They flew in silence for a few more seconds before Chakotay shook his head and smiled. “Fine, I’ll bite. Why would Kathryn think that Illyria’s an android?”</p><p>“My ex was known for two things. One of them was making androids.”</p><p>He was polite enough not to mention that she was speaking in the past tense. “And the other thing?”</p><p>“Being immortal.”</p><p>He blinked in surprise. “Run that by me again?”</p><p>“I’m pretty sure you heard what I said.”</p><p>“Okay. Let’s see. As far as I know, Lieutenant Commander Data’s never dated anyone. Besides, he only ever made one android and she died. He’s more famous for <i>being</i> an android. Soong is famously dead, and besides he’s a bit old for you.”</p><p>“Oh, I don’t know about that.”</p><p>Chakotay grimaced. “Anyway, I’m not coming up with anything. Want to give me a hint?”</p><p>“How’s your early Starfleet history?”</p><p>“Rusty. I was always more interested in palaeontology. You might want to narrow it down a bit.”</p><p>“I thought you captains treated Kirk’s reports like religious doctrine.”</p><p>“Kirk?” Chakotay tapped the arm of his chair. “He met a few immortals, if I remember rightly. He even claimed to meet Cochrane. But he designed the first warp engine, not androids. Oh, yes, I remember – what was his name? Flint?”</p><p>“That’s the one.”</p><p>"But that was more than a hundred years ago.”</p><p>“Yup.”</p><p>“Are you sure she didn’t think <i>you’re</i> the android?”</p><p>“Pretty sure. I think she’d have said something.”</p><p>“So this big birthday you’ve got coming up – I’m assuming it’s not forty?”</p><p>“Off by an order of magnitude,” Buffy said with a smile. “I feel like I should be offended that you think I’m in my thirties, though.”</p><p>“I’ve known you for close to a decade, and you weren’t a teenager back then. You look great for someone on their fourth century.”</p><p>“Thanks! I moisturise.”</p><p>Chakotay gave her an intent look. “If I ask you what you were really talking about you wouldn’t change your story, would you?”</p><p>Buffy fluttered her eyelashes. “You think I’d lie to you? Little old me?”</p><p>“I’d prefer it if you did.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “So. Immortality. How’d that happen?”</p><p>“Magic, probably.”</p><p>Chakotay looked sceptical. “Magic?”</p><p>“It’s as good a reason as any. I just don’t do the whole aging and dying thing. Seems pretty magical to me.” Buffy shrugged. “Got to say, you two both took the news pretty well.”</p><p>“I can’t speak for the captain, but I think I’m in shock. It’s not every day that someone tells you they predate the Federation.” He smiled wryly. “At least now I know why Soong wasn’t out of the question.”</p><p>“Oh yeah, very funny.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Then Chakotay’s expression turned serious. “Still, even though I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around all of this, I’m glad you told me.”</p><p>“You know what?”</p><p>“Given the way this trip's gone so far, I really doubt it.”</p><p>“I'm glad too,” Buffy said with a smile. “Oh look, here we are. Great big asteroid dead ahead.” She frowned. “Is it just me, or does that big hole in it look like it’s got a ship in it?”</p><p>Chakotay checked the sensors. “If it is, the paramagnetic field is masking their energy signature. I’m trying to compensate.”</p><p>“Don’t bother. We’re being hailed.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter Fifteen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chakotay accepted the hail. The view screen showed a young man with the characteristic bone-ridge of the Nihydron running down the centre of his forehead. If he had been human Buffy would have guessed that he was probably in his late twenties, but she didn’t know enough about the Nihydron lifecycle to be sure. What little of the ship that she could see behind him looked old and battered. To her inexpert eye it looked like the machinery didn’t match, which suggested that it was probably cobbled together from leftover technology from at least a couple of species. That, combined with the fact that he was hiding out in the middle of an asteroid field, just screamed <i>smuggler</i>.</p><p>“You’re late,” the Nihydron snapped. Buffy fought down the urge to roll her eyes. Classic power play.</p><p>Chakotay’s lips quirked into a slight smile, which told her that he was thinking the same thing. “I wasn’t aware that we had a meeting at all. I’ll just sever the commlink and we’ll be on our way.” He ostentatiously moved his hand across the console to do just that.</p><p>“Wait! Didn’t Nythea send you?”</p><p>Chakotay frowned. “Nythea? No.”</p><p>The Nihydron muttered something under his breath. “She was supposed to give you directions to this asteroid. She spun a crazy story about some remnant of the Krenim Imperium breaking time, and how you could stop them if you could repair your ship.” He gestured expansively at himself. “Fortunately, I happen to be very good at acquiring what people need.”</p><p>“Our communication array is damaged. If she sent us a message, we never received it.”</p><p>The Nihydron looked surprised. “What are you doing here, then? Do you make a habit of flying into every asteroid field you come across?”</p><p>“Well, we are explorers,” Chakotay replied, not mentioning that they were hiding from a ship.</p><p>“You wouldn’t believe the amount of asteroid fields we’ve flown through,” Buffy added. “We’ve told our pilot to stop, but he just can’t get enough. You know how pilots are supposed to <i>not</i> fly into things? Yeah, he just loves not being stereotypical.”</p><p>The alien looked at her as though he had no idea what to make of what she’d just said. She just grinned back at him. He wasn’t the only one who could make power plays. After a long moment, he looked back at Chakotay. “Is it true?”</p><p>“Hmm? Oh, yes. Our pilot has a real asteroid fixation.” Buffy almost burst out laughing at that.</p><p>“No, not that. What Nythea said about the Krenim.”</p><p>“Ah.” Chakotay’s expression became serious. “Unfortunately, yes. One of their ships was here not too long ago. They warned us away from this sector.”</p><p>“We didn’t detect anything.”</p><p>“They have a tachyon scattering field. It makes them almost impossible to detect at anything other than close range.”</p><p>“They’ve been doing this for a long time.” Buffy leant forward. “D’you really think they’d have gotten away with any of this if they were easy to find?”</p><p>“Then how did <i>you</i> detect them?”</p><p>“Our sensors are better than yours,” Buffy replied. Technically she didn’t know for certain that that was true, but given that sensors were Illyria’s domain Buffy was willing to bet that it was. “We’ve known that someone was breaking time around here for… well, a let’s just call it a long time. Wasn’t ‘till we actually got here that we figured out who it was.”</p><p>“Fine.” The Nihydron didn’t seem totally satisfied by that. “I still think that you’re up to something, but Nythea asked me to help you and I owe her a few favours. If you tell me what you need, I’ll see what I can do about getting it to you. I’ve only got a limited supply at the moment, but I’m sure more stock can be arranged.” He smiled. “Doesn’t look like you’ll be going anywhere, anyway.”</p><p>“Where exactly does your stock come from?” Chakotay asked. Buffy didn’t doubt that he’d already guessed the answer – he’d almost certainly come to the same conclusion that she had. The trick would be convincing Janeway to go along with it. They badly needed the equipment, but the captain was exactly the sort of person to quibble about where they got it.</p><p>“I’m a trader,” he said grandly. “There’s a lot of people who’ve got things they don’t need and things they want, but the Zahl prefer if that sort of thing goes through… official channels. I prefer to cut out the middleman.”</p><p>Chakotay nodded. The ‘trader’s’ story matched what Nythea had said. Once the Krenim had fallen, the Zahl had stepped right into their shoes. Janeway would probably go for the deal. “I’ll run your deal past our captain. Do you have a name I can give her?”</p><p>For a moment the smuggler paused, his suspicion at their admittedly crazy story making him hesitate. Then he said “Narim.”</p><p>“Okay then, Narim. We’ll contact you again when we have an answer.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>“Do you trust him?” Janeway asked.</p><p>Chakotay shrugged. “He seems like the sort of person who’ll sell you faulty parts and then conveniently not be around when they break. If he didn’t have us over a barrel I’d probably look somewhere else, but we can’t afford to be choosy right now.”</p><p>“Ensign?” Janeway looked over at Buffy.</p><p>Buffy jumped slightly. “Me? Um, I agree with Chakotay. Far as I can tell, he makes his living selling stuff to people who can’t afford to complain about it. But I trust Nythea, and if she trusts Narim then that works for me.”</p><p>“I got the impression you didn’t trust the Nihydron,” Janeway said.</p><p>She was mildly surprised that the captain had picked up on that. “I didn’t trust them when they were high and mighty and after our Borg stuff. But the Nythea I spoke to down on the planet is pretty different than Commissioner Nythea was. She was keeping that town safe. If she’d thought we were a threat we probably wouldn’t have made it off the planet, but she seemed to believe our story.” She gave Janeway a rueful look. “If only because it sounds so totally loopy that no one would even think about using it as a lie. If she told Narim to help us, then he’s got to be at least a little trustworthy.”</p><p>“Are we sure she contacted him?”</p><p>“He knew about the Krenim breaking time,” Chakotay pointed out. “Outside of this ship, Nythea’s the only person that knows about that.”</p><p>“The Nihydron colony didn’t have any ships,” Buffy added. “Looked like they converted them into houses and stuff. Plus we’d have noticed if a ship had passed us, even when we were in subspace.”</p><p>“Buffy’s right,” B’Elanna said. “If Narim’s as shady as you two think he is, then it would make sense for Nythea to have an encrypted way to communicate with him. A triaxilating frequency would do it. We’d have spotted anything else. He definitely didn’t come from the planet.”</p><p>Janeway ran her fingers along the edge of the table. “What do we know about his ship? I’d rather not let our guard down and then be swarmed under by a surprise army.”</p><p>“Illyria’s been working on compensating for the paramagnetic field.” B’Elanna didn’t sound happy about that. “The ship’s a one-man cargo ship, but it looks like it’s been retrofitted with a few tricks to make it hard to track him. He definitely doesn’t have an army in there.”</p><p>Janeway nodded. “Okay, then-“</p><p>“Uh, to clarify – he doesn’t have an army in his <i>ship</i>. The asteroid he's camped out in is riddled with tunnels. We’re working on figuring out how far they go, but our current guess is that it’s been pretty much hollowed out. There’s even an atmosphere. Thin, but breathable. I’d guess someone terraformed it a hundred years ago or so.”</p><p>“Why would anyone terraform-“ Janeway began before cutting herself off. “It’s the perfect place to hide.”</p><p>B’Elanna nodded. “There’s a good chance that smugglers have been using this spot for a long time. Just because Narim’s the only one we can see doesn’t mean there aren’t more down there. A good pilot could fly a small ship down a lot of those tunnels.”</p><p>“How long will it take to compensate for the field?”</p><p>“Illyria says it’ll be two hours.” B’Elanna grimaced. “Actually, she said an hour and fifty-six minutes. She’s annoyingly exact about things like that.”</p><p>Janeway shot Buffy an inscrutable look. Buffy fought down an inappropriate giggle. “Any chance you can cut down on that, B’Elanna?”</p><p>“Sensors are her speciality. If she says it’ll be an hour and fifty-six minutes, it’ll be an hour and fifty-six minutes. If you want, I can double check her work.”</p><p>Janeway paused for a moment. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Chakotay, go back to the shuttle. Send Narim a list of what we need. Ask him about the tunnels.” She stood. Everyone recognised a dismissal when they saw one.</p><p>B’Elanna fell into step besides Buffy. “So, is it true?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Probably. Most things are. Which thing are we talking about here?”</p><p>“You <i>know</i> what I’m talking about.”</p><p>“If you explain it to me like I’m five, then maybe I actually <i>would</i> know what you were talking about.”</p><p>“I don’t know how people explained things four hundred years ago.”</p><p>Buffy blinked. “That got around fast.”</p><p>“It’s the talk of the ship.” B’Elanna elbowed Buffy. “So is it true?”</p><p>“Yup.”</p><p>“Why didn’t you say anything?”</p><p>“Well, it’s kinda hard to drop it into a conversation, isn’t it? Can’t exactly go ‘Hey, how’s the warp core running? Oh, by the way, did you know that I’m older than the Federation?’”</p><p>“It <i>is</i> hard to bring up,” B’Elanna admitted, “but we’re stuck on the other side of the galaxy and it’ll be the better part of a century before we make it home. Were you planning on mentioning it before we all lynch you for looking young while the rest of us are wrinkly and grey?”</p><p>“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised we haven’t blown up already. I’ve never been on a ship that gets into trouble as much as this one. I figured something would happen long before anyone got to the point of noticing that I stay pretty.” Buffy looked over at B’Elanna. “But the answer to the question you aren’t asking is no.”</p><p>B’Elanna looked confused. “Which question would that be?”</p><p>“No, I wouldn’t have told anyone if it wasn’t for the fact that time’s breaking and Q showed up to cause trouble. Also, no, it’s not personal. You’re my friend, B’El, but that doesn’t mean that we share everything. I can’t. Being open about everything generally leads to the bad stuff. But hey, you know about that. Otherwise you’d have told Tom how you feel about him by now.”</p><p>“I do not-“ B’Elanna began hotly. Then she sighed. “You’re just deflecting.”</p><p>“Is it working?”</p><p>“Well, you made your point, so I guess it probably is. Still wish you could’ve-“</p><p>Buffy interrupted her instinctively. It’d been centuries since there’d been a vengeance demon around, but the habit was still there. “It would’ve been nice. But hey, now you know my big secret. You’d better get to work on making some of your own.”</p><p>“Surprisingly, I think I’ll pass.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>B’Elanna had been right. It seemed like everyone on the ship had heard about her being immortal. As far as she could tell, it looked as though Janeway had told Neelix and then Neelix had told pretty much everyone else. Buffy guessed that the captain had decided to try her in the court of public opinion – a lot of people had been suspicious of Illyria after the situation in Engineering, and some of that had been reflected on Buffy. The fact that she had a history with Q hadn’t helped matters either. Now there was some fresh new gossip, and Janeway wanted to see how the crew reacted to it.</p><p>To Buffy’s surprise, no one seemed to actively disbelieve her. There was some mild scepticism, of course, but then there <i>was</i> a famous precedent. Plus they’d just been thrown 10,000 light years by a girl who had claimed to see beyond the subatomic. This wasn’t your average Starfleet ship – they’d gotten used to the impossible. If anything, there was an air of wait-and-see more than outright doubt.</p><p>The Doctor had cornered her and was trying to convince her to let him run a battery of tests on her so that he could try and figure out how her immortality worked when Chakotay showed up. “Mind if I cut in?”</p><p>The Doctor began to protest, but she interrupted him. “Oh, no. <i>Please</i> cut in. Is there some kind of news or something?”</p><p>“I spoke to Narim.” Chakotay smiled, as though he was about to tell a joke. “Guess what he said about the tunnels.”</p><p>“Um, let’s see- ‘I didn’t know they were there, I’ve never seen a tunnel in my life, honestly Officer, I don’t even know what a tunnel is?’”</p><p>“Better. He says they’re haunted.”</p><p>Buffy exhaled noisily. “Of course he did. No one’s gonna want to go exploring scary spooky tunnels in the middle of an asteroid.”</p><p>“Apparently people have gone down there and never come back. There are stories about people seeing glimpses of something moving where nothing should be. They hear a loud roaring sound like some sort of monster, and that’s the last thing they see and hear.” Chakotay shrugged. “The problem with stories like that is that you’ve got to wonder about the people telling them.”</p><p>“So I’m guessing that he doesn’t want anyone to go down there. For safety reasons, of course.”</p><p>“More or less. He said that we’re welcome to go down there if we want, but if we get killed or worse then it’s not his fault.”</p><p>“So of course someone’s going to go down there.”</p><p>“Mhm. The captain wants me to arrange an away mission. You’re on it.”</p><p>“Oh. Can’t. Got a doctor’s note.”</p><p>“What?” Chakotay and the Doctor said in simultaneous incredulity. </p><p>“See, the thing is, if some other people go down there then it’ll turn out to be nothing or some smugglers or maybe even some sort of silicon lifeform. But if I go down there, it’ll be ghosts or something else that goes bump in the night. The universe seems to store up all its weird stuff just for me. Trust me.”</p><p>“There’s nothing wrong with ghosts, Buffy.”</p><p>“Sure, if we’re talking about your ancestor spirits,” Buffy said. “But I’m pretty sure that anything we’ll find floating around inside an asteroid out in the middle of nowhere is going to be more with the nastiness. Besides, why can’t we just wait for a bit until Illyria’s sorted out our sensors? We don’t really need to go at all.”</p><p>“The captain doesn’t want us to be taken by surprise if there’s someone or something down there.”</p><p>“Then don’t be surprised. Shouldn’t be hard. Everyone’s busy not being surprised about me being immortal.” </p><p>“Just report to the shuttle bay,” Chakotay said exasperatedly.</p><p>“Fine. But when we get haunted by something creepy, let the record show that I told you so.”</p><p>“Noted.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter Sixteen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tom was waiting for her in the shuttle bay. She shouldn’t have been surprised – after all, he was their best pilot. The safest thing to do would be to fly at least part of the way through the tunnels, and he was the best choice for that. Besides, like most Starfleet ships, the senior crew of <i>Voyager</i> had a tendency to assign themselves to every mission.</p><p>“You forgetting something?” Tom asked.</p><p>Buffy paused. She couldn’t think of anything off the top of her head, but that didn’t really help. If she’d forgotten something, it stood to reason that she wouldn’t remember it. “Probably. Want to give me a helping hand?”</p><p>Tom scooted a box towards her with his foot. “General gear for a mission like this.”</p><p>“Don’t think it counts as me forgetting something if you had it all along. ‘Sides, I was just told to turn up here. No one told me anything about gear.” She opened the box to reveal a heavy pair of boots and a breathing mask. Buffy picked up the boots. “Oh joy. I love mag boots,” she said flatly.</p><p>“What’s not to love about shuffling around?” Tom agreed. “At least the asteroid’s got a high enough iron content for them to work.”</p><p>“They never fit,” Buffy complained. “They say they’re one-size-shifts-to-fit-everyone, but it’s more like one-size-doesn’t-fit-anyone.”</p><p>“Give them a try. Chances are the sizing technology has advanced a bit since the last time you had to wear something like that.”</p><p>Buffy gave him a withering look. “Thanks for that.”</p><p>“You’re welcome,” Tom replied unrepentantly. “At least tell me the breathing mask is stylish enough for you.”</p><p>“I thought the asteroid had an atmosphere.”</p><p>“It does, but because it’s so thin the Doctor’s worried that it could be dangerous if we exert ourselves too much. The mask’s a precaution more than anything.”</p><p>“Gotcha.” Buffy held the mask over her mouth. Her breathing became loud and heavy. “Tom. I am your father. You know it to be true.”</p><p>Tom broke into a gigantic grin. As a fan of ‘classic’ movies, he was probably the only person on the ship who’d recognise the <i>Star Wars</i> reference. Then his brow furrowed. “Hey, did you-“</p><p>“I’m not <i>quite</i> that old.”</p><p>“Oh. Right. Of course.”</p><p>Buffy decided to change the subject. “Right then. We should get going.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>They flew in almost total silence, besides the occasional relaying of sensor data. Eventually Buffy got tired of it. “Go on. Ask your questions. I can tell you’re just dying to ask me something. Everyone is.”</p><p>“Except you.”</p><p>Buffy swallowed. “Right. ‘Cept me.”</p><p>“Is Buffy Summers your real name?”</p><p>Buffy started in surprise. “Okay. That’s not where I thought this was going to go.”</p><p>“Really? It’s not like Buffy is-“</p><p>“Are you <i>really</i> going to make fun of my name when our chief engineer’s name is a couple of letters away from ‘banana?’”</p><p>“She’s half-Klingon, but I get your point. Still, if you’re nearly… it would make sense that you wouldn’t have kept the same name the whole time.”</p><p>“I’ve had a few names in my time,” Buffy admitted. “I’ve been Anne, something in Klingon that sounds like a really bad cough, the Bitch with the Axe – yeah, long story behind that last one – but I usually stick with Buffy. I’ve generally kept a low enough profile that I can get away with it.”</p><p>“Generally?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You said you generally kept a low profile.”</p><p>“Oh. Well, there’s times when I’ve had to be a bit more discrete than usual.”</p><p>“I think I can name someone who might’ve been you.”</p><p>“Well, yeah, I just said that I generally keep the same name, so you could just say my name.”</p><p>Tom continued as though she hadn’t spoken. “I remember something from my twenty-first century history class back at the academy. Not generally my favourite era of history – too gloomy, hardly anyone flies a ship until near the end of the century-“</p><p>“You’re telling me,” Buffy muttered grimly.</p><p>“-but there was something that stuck out. Something from the Eugenics Wars.” Tom shot her a sideways look. She wasn’t sure whether he was searching for some kind of reaction from her or he was giving her an opportunity to tell him to stop. </p><p>She did neither. Her face was still, expressionless. Her brain had shut down. There were a lot of things from her history that she tried not to think about. She was old. She’d lost a lot of people that she cared about. She preferred to think of them, if at all, as alive and well and happy, but just out of reach. Which was true, in a manner of speaking. She knew that better than anyone. She’d been in heaven herself. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t grieve, or that a few casual words wouldn’t open a centuries-old wound deep inside her chest.</p><p>Tom took her apparent lack of reaction as permission to go ahead. Buffy listened, while every breath felt like ice piercing her lungs. “There was a mysterious figure who opposed the Auguments. No one knows who she was – historians aren’t even sure that she was female at all. She appeared for a single season in the last year of the war, leading a group of guerrilla fighters. Almost nothing beyond their existence is known, either. During that season, she liberated three nations and is believed to have helped free several more. Most historians think that the war would have gone on significantly longer if it hadn’t been for her.” Tom turned in his chair to face Buffy directly. “What little records survived through World War III and the Post-Atomic Horror called her the Summer General. It’s not much of a stretch to come up with General Summers.”</p><p>Buffy closed her eyes. “Wasn’t me.”</p><p>She didn’t need to see Tom to visualise his incredulous reaction. “What?”</p><p>“It was my sister.” Breathing hurt too much, so she stopped. She focused on the pressure building in her chest – if she was careful, she could trick herself into believing that it was filling the void that had opened up inside her.</p><p>She heard Tom exhale slowly. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>Buffy opened her eyes slowly, almost warily. The asteroid loomed in front of them, dark and desolate. Tom had stopped the ship. She breathed out, and only then did she realise that her hands had been clenched so tightly that her fingernails had left bloody crescents in her palms. “Not your fault.” She stood so suddenly that Tom flinched. “Take us in. I just need to, um, adjust my boots.”</p><p>Tom nodded and, thankfully, said nothing at all as she headed to the back of the shuttle.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Buffy, to her surprise, found that she felt at home in the asteroid’s tunnels. They weren’t quite sewers – they were much dustier, for one thing. Every step sent up clouds of dust that hung in the air before slowly falling in the low gravity. They weren’t quite sewers, but they were close. It had been a long time since she’d been anywhere like this.</p><p>Both of them had flashlights. Buffy decided not to tell Tom that she didn’t need one. She wouldn’t be much of a Slayer if she couldn’t see in the dark. He was still on edge around her after earlier, and she didn’t want to freak him out. Besides, even if she could see just fine, that didn’t mean that he could.</p><p>“Doesn’t look like there’s been anyone down here for – well, probably forever,” Buffy said. “The only footprints around here are ours.”</p><p>“This is just one tunnel. Who knows about the others?”</p><p>“Sure, sure. You getting any readings on your tricorder? You know, the thing that is totally and completely different from a medical tricorder?”</p><p>Tom gave her a lopsided grin. “Nothing yet. No life signs, no energy signatures. Not that that means much. Sensors are pretty much useless here. We’d pretty much have to walk into something for the tricorder to pick it up.”</p><p>“Or something would have to walk into us.”</p><p>“Oh, you just <i>had</i> to say that, didn’t you?”</p><p>“What? We’re walking through an asteroid that might be haunted. How could I not say something creepy? Creepiness is, like, practically mandatory.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, sure it is. Just because this place might be haunted doesn’t mean that you have to tempt fate.”</p><p>“Time’s breaking. I’m not sure tempting fate is even something that we can do right now.”</p><p>“True.” Tom’s expression became serious. “Um, by the way, I’m sorry for earlier. I didn’t mean to-“</p><p>“It’s fine,” Buffy said, waving away his apology. “I’ve got a lot of history. No way you could’ve known which bits are sensitive. Speaking of, if I find that you’ve made a holoprogram of my life and times, I’ll tie you to front of a shuttle and then go for a test flight.”</p><p>“Yes ma’am.”</p><p>“Oh, shut up,” Buffy grumbled. “Anyway, how far do we want to go down this tunnel before we give up? If we haven’t had a ghost ambush by now, I’m thinking there won’t be a ghost ambush on the horizon.”</p><p>“Give it a few more minutes. Besides, who knows, there might be - <i>gah!</i>” There was a sudden noise. After the silence of the asteroid, it was almost deafening. It sounded like some sort of loud roaring wheeze, as though a thousand dragons with breathing problems were snoring all at once. The suddenness of the noise made Tom jump so violently that his boots lost contact with the floor. Without thinking about it, Buffy reached up to grab Tom and pull him back down. She crouched slightly, ready to run or fight if the need arose.</p><p>It didn’t seem to. Even though it sounded like there was a thousand dragons ahead of them, they didn’t seem to be interested in getting closer. Buffy frowned, and then took a step backwards. The noise cut off instantly. “World’s weirdest doorbell?” She mumbled to herself. She looked over at Tom. Although he still seemed a little bit wild-eyed, he seemed to have calmed down. “Well, it looks like we’ve walked into something. What is it? Some kind of alarm to scare off intruders?”</p><p>Tom looked at his tricorder. “Don’t think so. There doesn’t seem to be any technology nearby.” He looked up at the ceiling, trying to see if there was anything that the scan wasn’t picking up. “I’d guess that there’s some kind of dampening field, and we just crossed the threshold.”</p><p>“What are they keeping quiet? Mining? Is there something special about this particular asteroid?”</p><p>“Other than the paramagnetic field? No, not really. All the asteroids in this belt have pretty much the same composition, and there’s nothing unusual about them. Definitely no need for a secret mining operation.”</p><p>“Well, gang, it looks like we’ve got a mystery on our hands.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Scooby Doo? No? And you call yourself a fan of…” Buffy trailed off. “It’s an engine.”</p><p>“What? What engines have you been listening to? I’ve never heard anything that sounds like that.”</p><p>“To be fair, I do have a bit more experience with this than you do,” Buffy pointed out. “What did B’Elanna say? She said someone terraformed the asteroid about a hundred years ago, yeah? We just kinda assumed that smugglers did it and they made up the whole ghost thing to scare people away. But what if we were wrong? What if whoever did it is still here?”</p><p>“After a century?” Tom said sceptically. “Why? If you’re right and that’s an engine, why bother terraforming the place? They could just up and leave.”</p><p>“Could they? That doesn’t sound like a healthy engine. Maybe they crashed here and left the engine running.”</p><p>“Then what’s with the dampening field? Why leave yourself stranded here when you can make a distress call? We know there’s been space travel in this sector for at least two hundred years. Someone would have responded.”</p><p>“Someone’s doing secrety secret things down here, and they don’t want anyone to know about it.” Buffy shrugged. “We know the Krenim must’ve built their ship somewhere, and Nythea said that their research facilities were bombed before anything could get off the ground. Literally. Why couldn’t they have holed up here?”</p><p>“And we just happened to stumble across their top secret base?” Tom said dubiously. “I don’t think even Tuvok could calculate those odds.”</p><p>“We do have a Q in our corner. Or at least vaguely in our corner-like area, doing things that might look helpful if you squint at them hard enough.”</p><p>Tom didn’t seem entirely convinced. “I suppose it’s worth a look.”</p><p>“That’s all I’m asking.”</p><p>They walked on, the deafening sound of the engine roaring around them. Tom kept checking his tricorder as though he expected to suddenly find something where nothing had been before. For Buffy’s part, she kept her eyes peeled. If she were the bad guys, she would set up some kind of ambush here. In the earlier, quieter part of the asteroid it would have been too easy for them to hear an ambush coming, but if they struck now before the pair had a chance to acclimatise to the noise then they’d have the advantage. Of course Buffy <i>was</i> expecting them, which mitigated that advantage and meant that they’d probably be better off striking some other time, but that sort of thinking made her head hurt. She could only deal with a few paradoxes at a time.</p><p>Besides, Buffy thought as she saw something moving in her peripheral vision where there should be nothing to see, the bad guys didn’t know who they were dealing with. She turned her head nonchalantly, as though she was just stretching. There was nothing behind her.</p><p>Of course, she didn’t know what they were dealing with either.</p><p>“Tom?” Buffy said calmly, pitching her voice so that he could hear her over the wheezing engine but not speaking so loudly that her voice would carry. “There’s something here.”</p><p>Tom, to his credit, barely twitched. He didn’t take his eyes off the tricorder. “I’m not reading any lifeforms.”</p><p>“We know they’ve got at least one dampening field.”</p><p>Tom nodded almost imperceptibly. “I’ll try to compensate.”</p><p>Before he had a chance, though, a small rock came flying from out of the dark, aiming squarely for the back of his head. Buffy’s hand shot out and caught it. She winced. Whoever had thrown that was strong.</p><p>Tom looked up, wide-eyed, and saw the stone in Buffy’s hand. “Thanks.”</p><p>“Don’t worry about it,” Buffy said. She didn’t take her eyes off of the tunnel.</p><p>Nothing moved. There were no more rocks. The tunnel seemed to be exactly as empty as it should be.</p><p>“No phaser,” Tom pointed out. “No energy weapon.”</p><p>“Not even a time rifle or something weird like that,” Buffy agreed. “I doubt the people who built a ship that can break time are the sort of people to throw rocks.”</p><p>“If they <i>were</i> down here, maybe something scared them off.”</p><p>They stared into the darkness beyond their flashlights. “Why’d you have to say that, Tom?”</p><p>“You started it.”</p><p>“There’s a time and a place for ominousness, and it was ten minutes ago.”</p><p>“No one told me that.”</p><p>“Well now you know. So, what do we do next? Forward or back?”</p><p>Tom hesitated briefly. “Well, someone’s hiding <i>something</i> down here. Between the asteroid’s paramagnetic field and the dampening field, there’s a chance that <i>Voyager</i>’s sensors will never get a proper lock.”</p><p>Buffy doubted that. If they gave Illyria enough time with the ship’s sensors, she could probably find anything. But her lips curved into a smile. They were here, and there might be ghosts or monsters or Krenim ahead. What kind of Slayer would she be if she turned her back on that? “Onwards it is. I’ve got your back.”</p><p>They moved onwards. Though the sound got louder, if such a thing was possible, nothing else happened. There was no ambush. There were no flying rocks. What there was, though, was the feeling that there should really be <i>something</i>, and because there wasn’t they both felt as though they had to be walking into some kind of trap.</p><p>After a while, the tunnel began to gradually widen until, eventually, they reached a large cavern. In the middle of it was the source of the sound.</p><p>It was a ship. Or the remains of one, at least. Though there was no disturbance in the omnipresent dust around it, it looked like it had crashed there. Nothing could look as damaged as that and fly. It looked like someone had practically disassembled it after it had crashed, and used it to make some kind of crude terraforming machine.</p><p>Tom looked down at his tricorder and frowned heavily. He looked back up at the remains of the ship, and then down again as though he couldn’t possibly believe the results he was getting. “That’s not possible.”</p><p>“Want to share with the class?”</p><p>“That ship has a Federation energy signature.”</p><p>And then something dropped from the ceiling to land squarely on Tom’s back, bearing to the floor. His flashlight was crushed beneath him and his tricorder skidded across the ground.</p><p>Buffy moved towards him to help, but somehow something got tangled around her legs and she stumbled. She might have fallen if her magboots hadn’t kept her anchored to the ground. </p><p>The thing that had landed on Tom stood up, and revealed itself to be a humanoid dressed head to toe in fabric that was covered in the same dust that filled the tunnels. Some kind of camouflage gear. Even the face was covered.</p><p>Tom, however, didn’t get up. Buffy doubted he was dead – the figure hadn’t attacked him so much as dropped on his head. In the asteroid’s low gravity, it couldn’t weigh all that much. </p><p>The figure regarded Buffy warily, as far as she could tell. At the very least, it didn’t seem eager to attack her. Maybe she’d scared it when she’d caught the rock it had thrown at Tom. If that had even been the same entity. </p><p>Buffy settled into a fighting stance. After a moment’s hesitation the figure followed suit, mirroring her exactly. Buffy found herself grinning. It had been a long time since she’d gotten into a good old-fashioned fist-fight. Tackling Seven hadn’t been close. </p><p>She moved in close and shot a series of lightning fast jabs at the figure’s stomach. It blocked her blows quickly without any seeming effort, and shot back with a vicious uppercut that would have smashed Buffy’s jaw had she not swayed aside. Her eyebrows went up. Whoever this person was, they were good. Better than she’d expect to find inside an asteroid in the middle of nowhere. </p><p>Buffy would have liked to kick the figure, but her magboots were keeping her anchored to the ground. Fighting in low gravity was difficult at the best of times, and she was out of practice. In any case, this was the figure’s home turf. It was bound to be better at that sort of thing than she was. If their theories were right, it had had about a hundred years to practice.</p><p>Well. If someone’s got an advantage, the best thing to do would be to make sure they didn’t have a chance to use it. She moved low, as though she was about to strike at the figure’s legs. The figure responding by leaping upwards, spinning above Buffy’s head. It rained a series of blows down on her as it passed, but Buffy ignored them and surged upwards, disengaging her magboots and wrapping her arms around the figure’s waist, launching them both upwards. The figure crashed into the ceiling, and Buffy crashed into it. The figure didn’t seem at all deterred by this. It put its hands on either side of Buffy’s head and slowly, inexorably, began to twist.</p><p>Buffy slammed her fists into the figure’s stomach, but she might as well have been hitting rock for all the effect it had. In Buffy’s experience – and she had a <i>lot</i> of experience – it should have been winded at the very least. That left two options. Either the creature had a very different biology than most humanoids – which was possible, given that it seemed to be just fine living in an asteroid – or it wasn’t biological at all. It could be some kind of android. At least that would explain why Tom hadn’t been able to detect any life signs.</p><p>Buffy wrapped her hands around the figure’s wrists and began to pull, spreading the creature’s arms wide. It was strong, very strong, but she was the Slayer.</p><p>Then, improbably, the figure laughed. It was the first sound that it had made. Surprisingly, the laughter was free and mirthful. Not at all the sort of menacing cackle that Buffy would have expected from something that lived in an asteroid.</p><p>That wasn’t the most surprising thing about it, though. No. The most surprising thing was that she <i>recognised</i> that laugh. As well she should. She’d heard it often enough. </p><p>Her grip loosened slightly in shock, enough for the figure to wrench an arm free. Rather than continuing its assault, it reached up and pulled off the mask covering its face.</p><p>It was like looking in a mirror.</p>
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<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter Seventeen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
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  <i>Algiers, Earth, 2009</i>
</p><p>The Slayers had given Buffy an office when she’d arrived. She’d realised that she hated it almost immediately, but it had taken her a little while to work out why.</p><p>It wasn’t because it put up a barrier between herself and the rest of them, or because it put her at one remove from the action, or even because it meant that she spent a good amount of her time acting as little more than a glorified bureaucrat. That was part of it, certainly – there had been a time when she’d gone out with nothing more than a stake and a ready quip, and left everything even remotely close to organisation to Giles. These days, Slayers had guns and Giles… wasn’t around. She was important, and so she had to keep a low profile. Besides, war took a lot of organisation.</p><p>But really, she hated it because it was quiet. The last time she’d lived somewhere quiet, her mom had been alive, and even then it had only been quiet when Dawn was at school. She knew that, physically, the only thing that separated herself from the hustle and bustle of Slayer life was a wall and a closed door. But that was enough. It didn’t matter what she was doing; reading reports, planning battles, even <i>researching</i>. Sometimes she’d just freeze, waiting. She was used to noise – noise meant she was alive. Now she had to get used to silence. Her reflexes, ingrained after years of fighting, were waiting for an attack that never came. </p><p>No attack was a good thing, she told herself. Of course it was. But it didn’t mean that the silence wasn’t driving her mad. She spent her time with a part of her, hardened by battle, constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.</p><p>The shoe, as it turned out, was rather innocuous. It came in the form of Niamh, a small Irish Slayer with a shaved head, walking into Buffy’s office. She hadn’t knocked, which was unusual. Niamh was always unfailing polite. But this time she just walked in. She didn’t quite look Buffy in the eye.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” Buffy asked.</p><p>“Um. You know how we sent the Buffybot to Tangiers in order to try and lure Koschei out of hiding?”</p><p>Buffy nodded. It had been her plan. “Did it work?” She needn’t have bothered asking. Niamh wouldn’t have been nearly so awkward if it had. Something had gone wrong. Badly wrong, most likely.</p><p>“Well. Not exactly. He, um, decided to do a little bit more than try and have her – you – killed.” Niamh braided her fingers together. “He went for something a bit more intense than an assassination attempt.” </p><p>“What exactly are we talking about, here?”</p><p>“He nuked the city.” Only then did Niamh meet Buffy’s gaze. “Tangiers is gone.”</p><p>~*~</p><p><i>Delta Quadrant asteroid, 2375</i> </p><p>It was <i>like</i> looking into a mirror, but it wasn’t quite the same. Though the figure in front of her had her face, there were differences.  For one thing, it had longer hair than she did these days. For another, there was a long cut running along its jawline. It wasn’t bleeding, but it wasn’t a scar, either. It just looked as though its skin was torn. For a third, it was looking at her with a more-than-slightly manic look in its eyes.</p><p>Its hand – or <i>her</i> hand, Buffy supposed – twitched, as though it wanted to reach out and touch her. “Is it really you?” She said in Buffy’s voice, her tone low and urgent. “Is this real? Is it you?”</p><p>Buffy frowned. “Well, I know I’m me. So there’s that. Less clear on who you are.”</p><p>She tilted her head to one side. She looked confused. “Don’t you recognise me?”</p><p>“I mean, you look like me. So that bit I get. I don’t get how you’re here. I mean, unless time did something majorly weird and you’re some other version of me from the future or something.” She knew that wasn’t it, though. This had nothing to do with the future. “But you’re not, are you? You’re not me at all. I mean, not really. You’re the Buffybot, aren’t you?”</p><p>The Buffybot nodded fervently. “I <i>knew</i> you recognised me!”</p><p>“How are you here? How are you – how are you even alive? How are you…“ Buffy took a deep, steadying breath. “Okay. Okay. You’ve got some ‘splaining to do.”</p><p>“I think I did die. We got warning that Costco-“</p><p>“Koschei – actually, no, I like yours better. Carry on.”</p><p>“-was going to bomb us. We got to shelter. The witches did some sort of magic thing. Didn’t work too well.” The Buffybot paused. “I remember heat. And light. It was… uncomfortable.”</p><p>Buffy was about to point out that that was an understatement when she remembered that they’d never quite managed to work out how to give the Buffybot a full range of sensations. In a few very <i>specialised</i> areas she was very sensitive, but in others not so much. It was possible that being nuked felt like a bad sunburn to her.</p><p>“Then there was nothing for a bit, and then Blue was there.” Buffy shouldn’t have been surprised – really, it was the only possible solution – but she’d been so overwhelmed that the Buffybot was here at all that her brain had effectively short-circuited. “Apparently there’d been some kind of dig and some scientist people had found me. Or something. Didn’t really follow it, ‘cause at that point I was just a bit of a head.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Turns out being bombed really breaks you up.” The Buffybot shrugged. “Who knew?”</p><p>“So Blue rebuilt you?”</p><p>“Uh huh. She said she had a job for me. She put me together again, and then she gave me a ship, <i>Banana Anchor</i>, and-“</p><p>“Hold up. What did you say your ship was called?”</p><p>“<i>Banana Anchor</i>?”</p><p>“Really?” It seemed strange that that was the thing that Buffy couldn’t believe. She could buy Illyria finding the remains of the Buffybot, rebuilding her and sending her across the galaxy. She could even buy stumbling across her in an asteroid – Buffy had long since stopped believing in coincidences, especially when Q was around. But she couldn’t believe there was a ship called <i>Banana Anchor</i>.</p><p>“Well, probably not. I’ve – we’ve never been much good with names. I think it was something fancy that just sounded like that.” She shrugged again. “Plus it did the whole crashing thing anyway, so it’s not like I can check.”</p><p>“Okay. Fine. She gave you the <i>Banana Anchor</i>. How’d you get all the way out here? ‘Cause as far as we can tell you’ve been here about a hundred years or so, which would mean that you would have had to leave the Alpha Quadrant about a hundred and sixty years ago. I’m pretty sure Blue was in Romulan space at the time. So how’d you wind up all the way out here?”</p><p>“There was a geoderek pulse.”</p><p>“A what now?”</p><p>“A geoderek pulse.”</p><p>“Surprisingly enough, that doesn’t really explain what it is.”</p><p>“I don’t know. A geo pulse made by someone called Derek, I guess. All I know was that it involved almost crashing into a big red star and then suddenly I was being thrown out of a big red star all the way out here.” The Buffybot shuddered. The movement was enough to send the pair floating gently downwards. “Didn’t like it much. Felt like I was being filled with acid or something icky.”</p><p>Buffy had never heard of anything like that, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. She’d never kept up to date with that sort of thing. She was sure a bunch of people on <i>Voyager</i> would know about it, though. If it was the sort of thing that could transport a ship across space that quickly then she could guarantee that they’d at least considered it as an option to get home. “So you popped out of a star and then what? You crashed here?”</p><p>“Not exactly. There were some people who were mean, and we did some shooting and I did some hiding and they did some chasing and some more shooting and <i>then</i> I did the crashing. But that was probably hundreds ago.”</p><p>“Hundreds of what?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Buffy mentally adjusted herself. It had been a long time since she’d talked to the Buffybot, and she’d tried to avoid it even then. She’d always found it disconcerting. “You said that you crashed here hundreds ago. Hundreds of what?”</p><p>“How am I supposed to know?”</p><p>“You’re the one who - you know what, never mind. So Blue sent you all the way out here to check on time breaking, and-“</p><p>“How did you know about that?” The Buffybot asked in surprise. “Oh. I guess that’s why you’re here, huh?” She visibly deflated.</p><p>“You know Illyria. She’s got what we call a one-track mind. I don’t think she’s been interested in anything else for two hundred years.”</p><p>The Buffybot shifted from foot to foot. “I kinda hoped you were looking for me.”</p><p>“I would have,” Buffy said, and was surprised to realise that it was true. “I thought you died years and years ago. Blue never told me she, uh, put you back together again.”</p><p>“Right. Right.” The Buffybot nodded once, sharply. “Makes sense. Anyway. Haven’t had much of a chance to try and figure out the whole time breaking thing. I’ve only really been here. Sometimes there are demons.”</p><p>Buffy’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”</p><p>“Oh, yeah. I thought you might be one, you and Mister Redshirt over there.” She gestured to Tom. “But you’re not, are you?”</p><p>“Nope. Just as human as always. And, uh, I don’t know how to break to you, but the people you’ve been seeing? Probably not demons.”</p><p>“You sure? Even the ones with the faces that look they’ve been run over by something with really big tires?” </p><p>Other than the Nihydron, Buffy hadn’t seen any aliens from this region of space. Definitely not anyone who looked like they’d been run over. She filed that information away for later. “Aliens.”</p><p>“Isn’t that, like, the same as demons from outer space?”</p><p>“Surprisingly, no. Although they can be pretty close. And the jury’s still out on Tholians.”</p><p>“So you’re saying I shouldn’t have been killing them?”</p><p>“Have you <i>been</i> killing them?”</p><p>“Sometimes. Usually I scare them away. Turns out the noise that the atmo-thingy makes scares off most of them. Other times it’s enough for me to show up and make weird noises. Oh, and this costume thing really freaks them out.” </p><p>“Well, uh, maybe you shouldn’t do the killing thing unless you clear it with me.”</p><p>“Okay,” the Buffybot said cheerfully.</p><p>“Why’d you build an atmo-thingy anyway? D’you even need one what with, you know, the whole robot thing?”</p><p>“Don’t know. Managed to spend the time it took to build it. It didn’t feel nice, though. All icy and stuff.” She scuffed her foot along the ground. “Plus I like the sound. Having a sound, I mean. It gets so quiet out here. Makes me nervous.”</p><p>Buffy gave her an appraising look. This wasn’t the same Buffybot that she’d known back on Earth all those years ago. For one thing, she’d managed to cobble together a crude atmospheric generator from the remains of a crashed ship. Buffy doubted that she’d be able to do that herself. The android that she’d known had a tendency to sit staring at nothing when she hadn’t been told what to do. She definitely didn’t get nervous when it was quiet. She didn’t get nervous at all. She didn’t know if Illyria had put her together differently, if it was something to do with the geoderek pulse, or even if it was simply because she’d spent the better part of a century fending for herself. Whatever the reason, she definitely seemed more advanced than she ever had before.</p><p>“What am I going to do with you?”</p><p>The Buffybot looked alarmed. “Do? Why would you have to do anything with me?”</p><p>“I mean, it’s not like I can just leave you out here. That would be… yeah. But you’re kinda difficult to explain. Having an android around who looks just like me is going to raise some questions and I’m pretty sure that the only answers I can come up with are going to be so embarrassing that I might just spontaneously explode. Plus there’s the issue about how you got all the way out here. I’d love to blame Q, but while he definitely works in mysterious ways I don’t think the crew will buy that you’re one of the ways that he works in.”</p><p>“You’ve got a crew? Who else is there? Spike? Dawn?”</p><p>The words came out of nowhere and hit her like a fist. “Um, you do know that it’s been nearly four hundred years, yeah?”</p><p>The Buffybot scratched her head absently. Another thing that she never would have done before. “I think Blue mentioned something like that. I’m not sure. Things tend to get a little fuzzy after a while.”</p><p>“People don’t, uh, usually live that long. They aren’t… around anymore.” Buffy’s hands clenched and unclenched at her sides. “We’ve got Blue, ‘cause the end of the world barely even slows her down, but the rest of the crew are just people. You know, like the guy that you dropped onto. They know I don’t make with the dying, but the magic and demon stuff and, um, all of that sorta stuff is kinda something they don’t know about. None of that is really a thing these days. So if you show up and try and kill our security officer because he’s got pointy ears, there’ll probably be some problems.”</p><p>“I don’t <i>have</i> to kill demons. I thought you and your friend were demons and I didn’t make with the Slayage.”</p><p>“To be fair, though, you probably would have if I hadn’t stopped you.”</p><p>“Well, maybe, but you <i>are</i> here and you <i>did</i> stop me. So there’s that.”</p><p>“That’s true, but while you not killing people would definitely make things easier it doesn’t exactly solve the problem. They already know I’ve got a bit of a past. You showing up’ll just make everything more complicated.”</p><p>The Buffybot clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh! There’s something I want to show you!”</p><p>Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “Why do I get the feeling that I’m not going to like it?”</p><p>“Because you’re all doom-and-gloomy?”</p><p>Despite herself, Buffy smiled. “You know, I can’t even argue with that.”</p><p>The Buffybot grabbed her by the arm and began to pull her along. “Come on! You’ll like it, I promise. It’s not scary spooky or anything like that.” </p><p>She led Buffy past the ship – Buffy was amused to see the letters ‘<i>ANAN</i>’ painted on the side of it, although the rest of it was so damaged that she couldn’t make out the rest of it. They left the cavern entirely, and headed down another tunnel that ended in another, larger cavern. </p><p>A spiral pathway had been carved along the wall. It wound right the way up to the ceiling, and every inch of it was lined with statues. The first ones that Buffy saw were childish and crude, looking more like misshapen potatoes than anything else, but as she craned her head backwards she saw that they got more and more detailed as the pathway went on. All of them, every single figure, was someone she recognised.</p><p>“I started at the bottom and made my way up. The ones at the top are better. I think carving gets easier when you get higher. That’s why the later ones are better.” The Buffybot looked over at Buffy. “What do you think of them?”</p><p>Buffy didn’t reply. Truthfully, she was barely aware that the Buffybot was even talking to her. It was as though her entire history was spread out in front of her. It looked like there was at least one statue of everyone that she’d ever met. She could see Joyce, Giles, Mister Gordo. Koschei, Khan, the Master. There were at least a dozen versions of Dawn that she could see.</p><p>No human had ever set foot in this cavern before. She was so far from home, but here was her past carved out in front of her. She was forcefully reminded of what Illyria had said two hundred years ago, when she’d first found out that time was breaking.</p><p>
  <i>”One seems to move so far, and yet in reality one gets nowhere.”</i>
</p><p>She was snapped back to the present when the Buffybot waved her hand in front of Buffy’s face. “Hello? Earth to Planet Buffy? Or asteroid, I guess.”</p><p>Buffy shook her head to clear it. “Oh. Sorry. I just… I don’t have pictures. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen these people.” She frowned up at the batlike features of the Master. “How d’you even know what some of these people look like? You don’t have my memories, and you never even met the Master.”</p><p>“I didn’t? Are you sure?”</p><p>“Given that he was deader-than-dead before you were made, yeah, I’m pretty sure.”</p><p>“Dunno then. Things get fuzzy after a few. Hard to remember what happened and what didn’t.” The Buffybot shrugged. “It’s magic, probably.”</p><p>“A few what?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You said – oh, never mind.” Buffy crossed her arms. “D’you remember Wilson?”</p><p>“We talking Tom Hanks’ beachball or the guy you made with the smoochies with?”</p><p>“The second one.”</p><p>“Sure. He’s right over… there.” She pointed.</p><p>Buffy didn’t look. “When we get back to the ship, if anyone asks – and they will – tell them he made you. At some point a few hundred years ago you walked out and thought you’d give independence a go, and then you got caught up in a spatial disturbance and got flung all the way out here. A guy wearing a uniform like Tom over showed up, introduced himself as Q, and told you to wait.” Only then did she look up. “Don’t tell anyone about this room.”</p><p>“You want me to lie?”</p><p>“I mean, it’s not much of a lie. You don’t have to say much.”</p><p>“Yeah, no, I’m fine with the lying thing. Just wanted to make sure.”</p><p>“Oh. Okay then. Well, I guess we should get Tom to the shuttle and head back.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Author’s note: the Eugenics War canonically takes place between 1992 and 1996. I’ve shifted it back by about fifteen years because it didn’t fit with the Buffy timeline (it doesn’t really fit with the Star Trek timeline either, but that’s a different argument). It’s also fairly different from what little depictions there are in the expanded universe.</p><p>I created the character of Koschei because I wanted an Augument antagonist that wasn’t Khan. The name comes Slavic mythology. He’s known as Koschei the Deathless, which fits as a foil to Buffy. Another reason I chose that name is because, in the folk tales, he’s immortal because he hides his soul inside nested objects – for example in an egg that’s in a duck that's in a hare and so on. It works with a minor theme in the story.</p>
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<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter Eighteen</h2></a>
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    <p>Buffy heard Tom stir in the back of the shuttle. She spun her chair around to see him blink blearily at the Buffybot. “Did you do something with your hair?”</p><p>The Buffybot panicked. “What? No! Why? Is there something wrong with it?”</p><p>Tom sat up, wincing at the movement. “What happened? What are you wearing?” Then he saw Buffy sitting in the pilot’s seat at the front of the shuttle. “I know I hit my head, but if I’m seeing double then why’re you wearing…” He frowned as realisation began to dawn. “Why’re there two of you, Summers?”</p><p>“It’s a long story.” Really she’d have preferred for it to have waited until she got back to <i>Voyager</i>. She didn’t want to tell it to a concussed Tom and then have to repeat it to everyone else.</p><p>“At least a few hundred years,” The Buffybot agreed.</p><p>“I’ve got some time.”</p><p>“Uh, you know how Wilson made androids? Well, there you go. Exhibit A.”</p><p>“Oh. That’s not a very long…” Tom trailed off as he realised <i>why</i> someone would make an android that looks just like their ex. He grimaced.</p><p>“It’s not… it wasn’t like that,” Buffy said quickly. “I was a soldier. Sometimes we needed a decoy.”</p><p>“It was sometimes like that,” Buffybot interjected. “He was very pretty.” Buffy scowled at her. That wasn’t part of the script.</p><p>“Right.” Tom rubbed his head gingerly. “I can see that. I don’t want to, but I can. The thing I don’t see is how an android made by your ex-boyfriend managed to end up in an asteroid halfway across the galaxy that we just <i>happened</i> to stumble across.”</p><p>“Ooh! I know that one!” The Buffybot exclaimed. “There was, like, this wiggy flickering portal thingy just sitting in mid-air, and this guy who was wearing a uniform like yours showed up and told me I should go through and wait until I… I mean, you, um, Buffy showed up. Didn’t like him much. Said his name was Q.”</p><p>“And the spaceship?”</p><p>“That was what I was in when the portal thingy showed up. Duh.”</p><p>Buffy watched as Tom struggled not to smile at that. “Okay. Fine. So Q whisked you across the galaxy. I can buy that.” Buffy couldn’t tell whether that meant that he actually did buy it, or he was just suspending disbelief until later. “What do I call you?”</p><p>“What do you mean? My name’s Buffy.”</p><p>“<i>Her</i> name’s Buffy,” Tom said, pointing to the real Buffy. “You aren’t her. You might’ve been made to be like her, but that doesn’t mean that you’re the same person. Plus if we call both of you Buffy then it’ll get really confusing.”</p><p>“We used to call her the Buffybot,” Buffy volunteered.</p><p>Tom frowned. “That might’ve been okay a few hundred years ago, but androids have rights now.” The Buffybot lifted her right hand and looked at it in wonder. Buffy couldn’t tell if she was taking the bimbo thing way too far or she was actually just that loopy. It was hard to tell with the Buffybot. “If you want, you can pick a name.”</p><p>“Mister Gordo,” the Buffybot said instantly. Buffy doubled over with laughter. Tom just looked confused.</p><p>“Why Mister Gordo?” He asked.</p><p>“He was soft and fluffy and he was a toy created to be loved.”</p><p>The last part of that sentence instantly drove all humour out of Buffy. As loopy as the android might be, Buffy could see the logic in her picking that name. She was silent for a few seconds, until she felt like she could trust her voice not to crack. “You might want to drop the Mister.”</p><p>“Miss Gordo is too much like Miss Piggy,” the Buffybot pointed out reasonably.</p><p>“I feel like I’m missing something here. Who or what is Mister Gordo?”</p><p>“He was a toy pig I had when I was young. I used to take him everywhere, even when I grew up,” Buffy replied, her voice soft. “I don’t think anyone loved a stuffed pig as much as I loved Mister Gordo.”</p><p>“Oh, like Toby the Targ? I know B’Elanna always takes hers with her whenever she leaves the ship for more than a day or so.”</p><p>“B’Elanna told you about… never mind. Yes, Mister Gordo was like that, only better and not a Targ.”</p><p>“How about Gordo, then?” The Buffybot asked.</p><p>“Are you sure? You don’t have to rush into anything. Our doctor hasn’t picked a name in four years.”</p><p>The Buffybot – Gordo shrugged. “It’ll do for now. Why doesn’t your doctor have a name?”</p><p>“Because he’s… actually, I’m sure he’ll tell you if you ask. But if you’re happy with that name, we can work with it,” Tom said dubiously. He looked over at Buffy. “You’re going to have to explain to the captain why we’re bringing back an android doppelganger called Gordo.”</p><p>“Looking forward to it,” Buffy said. She wasn’t.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Janeway was waiting for them in the shuttle bay. Although that was unusual, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Ship-to-ship communication was still down, and it made sense for the captain to want to hear their report as soon as they arrived. Especially if she didn’t entirely trust one of the people on the mission.</p><p>As soon as the three of them walked out of the shuttle, she turned to Buffy. “What did you do?”</p><p>“Hey, hold up! This isn’t <i>my</i> fault. Blame Q. He’s the one who dredged up an android and left her here for us to find. If anything, this is Chakotay’s fault. I told him that the universe stores up all the weird stuff for when I go on missions, but he didn’t listen."</p><p>“Are you the captain?” Gordo said blithely. “Your ship’s very pretty. You can call me Gordo.”</p><p>Janeway’s head looked like it was going to explode. “I’d like an explanation, Ensign.”</p><p>Buffy briefly told her what she’d told Tom. Gordo smiled and nodded and generally didn’t seem to be paying much attention. She was too focused on looking around. Buffy supposed that this was the first time in a century that she’d been in a properly functioning spaceship, and Federation technology had come a long way in that time. <i>Voyager</i> was far bigger and more advanced than the ship that Illyria had given her.</p><p>To Buffy’s surprise, Janeway didn’t interrupt her or ask any questions. She stayed silent throughout the whole narrative, her eyes never leaving Buffy’s face. </p><p>“… so yeah, that’s the sitch,” Buffy finished eventually.</p><p>“How much of that is true?” Janeway said as soon as Buffy had finished.</p><p>Fortunately Buffy had been prepared for that question. “It’s all true. I mean, it’s cool that you think I’m creative enough to make something like that up, but I’m, like, totally not.”</p><p>“Why would you think she’s lying?” Gordo asked curiously. “Buffy’s a terrible liar.”</p><p>“Just covering my bases,” Janeway said blandly. Buffy couldn’t tell whether Janeway actually believed her or not. She doubted it, but there wasn’t all that much she could do about it. Short of Q showing up and denying everything, there was no way that she could prove anything either way. Besides, Q might be the only person in the galaxy that Janeway trusted less than Buffy. Janeway turned to Gordo. “Are you damaged? I imagine spending years in asteroid with nothing but the remnants of a crashed ship must’ve been hard on your hardware.”</p><p>“I’m fine. I haven’t been injured, and unless I’m pretty much in pieces I can generally fix myself up.”</p><p>“Is there any way that we can access your memory engrams? If you’ve been in this region of space for a while, there might be something important in there.” Although the question was directed towards Gordo, Janeway’s eyes flicked to Buffy as she asked it. If Buffy wasn’t telling the truth, then looking at the android’s memory would definitely tell her what she’d lied about.</p><p>Unfortunately, Gordo replied before Buffy could come with a way to get out of that. “Sure there is. Willow always said that my memories were really easy to access. Course, she never looked. She figured there were some things she didn’t want to see.”</p><p>“Willow?” Janeway asked curiously.</p><p>“She was a friend,” Buffy replied tiredly. “Back around the turn of the twenty-first century.”</p><p>“We’d best take you to engineering. Tom, can you make your own way to the sickbay?”</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.”</p><p>“Good.” Tom left, the dismissal clear. Janeway turned to Buffy. “Now, are you sure there’s nothing you’d like to tell me?”</p><p>“If there was something I’d like to tell you, I’d already have told you. I’m not known for keeping quiet about things.”</p><p>“It’s true,” Gordo volunteered. “We – she’s known for inappropriate quipping.”</p><p>Janeway ignored her. “In that case, is there anything you <i>don’t</i> want to tell me? I saw your face when I suggested accessing her memory.”</p><p>“She’s an android made by ex-boyfriend. There’s definitely some stuff in there that I’d rather you not see.”</p><p>Surprisingly, Janeway smiled at that. “What if we limit it to the last hundred years? She’s been alone in asteroid for all that time. <i>Hasn’t</i> she?”</p><p>Buffy couldn’t come up with a way to say back out. The best she could hope for was some kind of catastrophe to pop up and distract everyone (which wasn’t out of the question, knowing their luck), or that there was something really interesting in there that made them forget to check the more recent memories. “It’s up to Gordo.”</p><p>Gordo shrugged. “Fine by me. Everything gets kinda foggy after a few anyway. Wouldn’t mind having things get cleared up a bit.”</p><p>“A few what?” Janeway asked.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You said after a few. A few what?”</p><p>“How am I supposed to know?”</p><p>“You said-“ Janeway let out an exasperated sigh and looked at Buffy. “What’s she talking about?”</p><p>“Haven’t a clue. I said the same thing you did.”</p><p>~*~</p><p>When they walked into Engineering, B’Elanna took one look at the trio, turned to Buffy and said “What did you do?”</p><p>“Why’s everyone asking me that? It’s not my fault the universe likes to save up all the strange things to dump on me.” Buffy said. Then, for the third time, she repeated the story she’d come up with while waiting for Tom to wake up. Then Janeway told he engineer what they wanted to do.</p><p>“Shouldn’t be difficult. We’ll need to run a few scans – I’ve never worked with an AI that’s that old, and we’ll need to isolate a terminal. Won’t take long.”</p><p>In fact, it took fifteen minutes. According to B’Elanna, Gordo’s hardware was so simple it bordered on the basic. She was surprised that it even worked at all. Buffy remembered that Willow had had doubts about the Buffybot – she’d always thought that she was closer to a golem or some kind of magical construct than a machine. She hoped that didn’t come to light.</p><p>It turned out to be as simple as peeling back a patch of skin at the base of Gordo’s neck and plugging in a cord. Buffy found herself being surprisingly unnerved to see someone with her face plugged into a computer. She imagined that that must be something like what she’d look like if she were Borg. </p><p>The computer screen flickered to life. It didn’t display files, lines of code, or any of the things that Buffy would have expected to see. Instead, it showed some kind of language that years of experience told her was demonic. It was harsh, angular, and just looking at it made her feel faintly nauseated. The screen kept scrolling constantly, revealing thousands of characters.</p><p>B’Elanna seemed to be just as thrown as Buffy was. “What’s this? Some kind of cryptogram? Doesn’t look like there’s any repeating characters.”</p><p>“Can you read this, Summers?” Janeway asked.</p><p>“Nope,” Buffy replied honestly. “Never seen it before.”</p><p>Janeway tapped her combadge. “Janeway to Seven.”</p><p>“Seven of Nine here.”</p><p>“Report to Engineering. There’s something I’d like you to have a look at.”</p><p>“Understood.”</p><p>“Why’d you give Seven a combadge?” Buffy asked. “Seems like a security no-no.”</p><p>“She’s been driving everyone up the wall asking for things to help her design temporal shielding.” B’Elanna replied. “This way she can ask for them directly rather than relay it through her security team every five minutes.”</p><p>Buffy nodded. She doubted that Tuvok would have authorised giving Seven a combadge just because she was irritating people. She’d guess that Janeway had overruled him – she probably wanted a more direct line to what the ex-drone wanted. </p><p>It was a few minutes before Seven showed up, trailing a couple of security officers. If she was surprised to see an android version of Buffy plugged into a computer, she didn’t show it. </p><p>“Do you recognise this?” Janeway nodded at the terminal.</p><p>Seven looked at it. The implant above her eye rose a few millimetres, but otherwise her expression was blank. “No.”</p><p>“You ever seen anything like it?”</p><p>“No.” Seven examined it closely. “There are no repeating characters?”</p><p>“That’s right,” B’Elanna confirmed.</p><p>Only then did Seven look at Gordo. “You were trying to access her memory engrams?”</p><p>“Yes. How’d you know?”</p><p>“To my knowledge, there was no android on this ship,” Seven said, ignoring the question entirely. “Did you find her on the asteroid?”</p><p>“We did.”</p><p>“How long had she been there?”</p><p>“Hundred years or so. Why? What’s with the inquisition?” Buffy asked.</p><p>“Someone has installed some form of temporal shielding in her. Time has been repeatedly altered in this region of space for centuries. In order to shield sentients from that, one would have to protect their memories. Otherwise they’d never know what they were being shielded from. The easiest way of doing that is to shift them out of normal space, but that isn’t always practical.” Seven clasped her hands behind her back. “Someone’s found a way to shield in normal space. Either this language is a record of the android’s past and the characters don’t repeat because they each represent an individual timeline that’s since been aborted, or it represents the shielding itself.”</p><p>Buffy frowned. “Seems like a bit of a leap.”</p><p>“No,” Janeway said slowly. “No, it doesn’t. That’s what she was talking about. ‘Things get foggy after a few’. Maybe she didn’t know about the shielding – maybe this is the language of the Q – and she didn’t understand that time’s breaking. All she knows is that something periodically happens, and it messes with her memories. No wonder things get foggy. She’s got potentially <i>thousands</i> of contradicting memories piled up on each other.”</p><p>“An accurate conclusion,” Seven said.</p><p>“If you’re right, can you make something of this language? Can you use it?”</p><p>“Potentially. It will take time. I will need to speak to the android.”</p><p>Buffy cleared her throat. “Um. No offense, but I’ve heard the way the Borg ask questions. Gordo’s spent a hundred years all by herself. A big interrogation and being the centre of attention would probably freak her out. Turning her over to you, Seven, would probably lead to yelling.”</p><p>“I do not yell,” Seven said. She sounded vaguely affronted.</p><p>“I’m assuming that you want to be there, Ensign,” Janeway said.</p><p>“I’d like to mediate. She doesn’t know Seven, but she knows me. If we’re going to ask big existential questions then I should probably be there.”</p><p>Janeway clearly didn’t like the idea, but she could see the logic of it. “Fine. Seven, I want a report of everything that’s said.” Buffy was a little hurt that the captain seemed to trust the ex-drone more than she trusted her, but it made sense. Seven’s motives were incredibly clear and her history was a known quantity. Janeway was probably justified in doubting whether Seven even could withhold information. The Borg had no secrets. Besides, there was no reason for her to hide anything.</p><p>At least, no reason that the captain knew about. Seven met Buffy’s gaze. “That is acceptable.”</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter Nineteen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>B’Elanna unplugged Gordo from the computer. The android shivered, then rubbed her eyes. “Didn’t like that. Did you get what you wanted?”</p><p>“Not exactly,” Janeway answered. “Someone’s encrypted your memories.”</p><p>“Oh.” Gordo caught sight of Seven. “Um, I don’t know how to break it to you, but you’ve got something on your face.”</p><p>“It is an ocular implant.”</p><p>“Oh.” Gordo gaze flicked over Seven from head to toe. “What other implants do you have?”</p><p>“This is Seven,” Buffy said, before Seven had a chance to reply. “She’s a cyborg. Seven, this is Gordo.”</p><p>Gordo frowned. “Do we kill cyborgs? Cyborgs are bad, right? I mean, Augments are bad, Adam was bad, seems like enhanced people are bad.”</p><p>“We’re fine with Seven. Hold off on the killing.”</p><p>“Who’s Adam?” Janeway asked. Her voice suggested that she’d be searching through the database afterwards regardless of the answer. </p><p>“Croquet did some experiments with putting machines in people, whether they wanted them for or not. Apparently being genetically engineered wasn’t good enough for him. Adam was one of the ones that survived,” Gordo lied smoothly. Buffy was impressed. Technically speaking, it wasn’t far from the truth. A few of the Augments <i>had</i> looked into cybernetics. They just hadn’t had anything to do with Adam.</p><p>“I’m sure I’m going to regret asking this, but who or what is Croquet?” Janeway grimaced. “And don’t mention the sport.”</p><p>“Koschei,” Buffy explained. “Back in those days I used to really enjoy getting people’s names wrong. I grew out of it. Gordo didn’t.”</p><p>“It’s fun to see people get mad when you mangle things,” Gordo added cheerfully.</p><p>“I didn't know any of the Auguments experimented with cybernetics.”</p><p>“It’s not like they were upfront about it. They were worried that the other Augments would find out about it.”</p><p>At that point Seven seemed to lose what little patience she had. “This conversation is irrelevant. I am returning to Cargo Bay 2. You will follow.” She turned on her heel and stalked out without bothering to see if they were obeying.</p><p>Buffy shrugged sheepishly. “Guess that’s our cue. C’mon, Gordo.”</p><p>“Oh, we’re going somewhere?” Gordo got hastily to her feet and followed Buffy. “Are there seven of her?” She asked, her voice low.</p><p>“No. Her name, or her designation I guess, is Seven of Nine, Tertiary thingy of something or other. It’s a Borg thing. We just call her Seven.” Buffy paused, as she realised that none of that meant anything to Gordo. “I’ll explain the Borg to you later.”</p><p>“I’m guessing Borg is short for cyborg and there’s a whole race of them somewhere.”</p><p>“Actually, yeah,” Buffy said in surprise. “Pretty much. Good guess.”</p><p>“Well, it was either that or she’s Björk’s cousin. That one didn’t seem likely.”</p><p>“Makes sense.” </p><p>The pair followed Seven into the turbolift. As soon as the doors slid shut, Seven said “Tell me the story you told the captain.”</p><p>For what felt like the hundredth time that day, Buffy did so. She noticed that Seven hadn’t asked her to tell her what had happened on the asteroid – just what she’d told <i>Janeway</i> had happened. That meant that Seven had already guessed that it had been a lie.</p><p>“I doubt that Q was involved in the android’s arrival in this region of space,” Seven said once Buffy had finished. “It seems more likely that Ensign Illyria was involved.”</p><p>Buffy hesitated for a moment before answering. “You’re not wrong. How’d you work it out?”</p><p>“The Q exist outside of our space-time continuum. They are not bound by the arrow of time. They would never have developed a language that could detail changes to the timeline. They wouldn’t need to - they would be unaffected by any such alteration. But Ensign Illyria appears to be capable of sensing temporal alterations on a physical level. She can feel the temporal paradox powering the Krenim ship. It is logical that such a species would create a language that represents such a sense.”</p><p>“Huh. Smart.” Buffy shot a sidelong glance at Seven. “What’re you planning on doing with that info?”</p><p>There was a brief pause before Seven replied. “That depends.”</p><p>Buffy’s eyebrows went up. “On what?”</p><p>“There are variables that I do not understand. I know that Ensign Illyria would be capable of making temporal shielding significantly faster than I could. With her temporal sense, we could avoid the Krenim until we find a way to defeat them. But she doesn’t want the crew to know about her capabilities. Nor do you. I don’t understand why.”</p><p>Buffy took a breath, held it for a moment, then exhaled slowly. “Why don’t <i>you</i> tell them? You know… some stuff. More than almost anyone else on board. If you told Janeway that Blue’s not human and she’s got some kinda time sense, she’d believe you. Not like Blue’s been good at keeping a low profile recently, and you’ve got no reason to lie about something like that. But you’ve lied for her – for <i>us</i> - at least a couple of times now.”</p><p>It was a few seconds before Seven spoke. “Selfishness. She doesn’t want to make me human. She’s the closest thing to a Borg on this ship. We are alike. Both of us are people who look human but most definitely aren’t. She’s the only person on this ship that’s expressed any intention of helping me return to the Borg. If I reveal any of what I know, then I place that in jeopardy.”</p><p>Buffy nodded. “Yeah. I get that.” She closed her eyes. “I get lonely too. I’m old. The oldest human alive. I’ve lost friends and lovers and family. I’ve seen cities fall. I’ve seen worlds burning while ships bombard them from orbit. I’ve seen so many things, and for all of that Illyria’s been there.” Her eyes opened, and her lips curled into something that might’ve been a smile if it hadn’t been so bitter. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t <i>like</i> Blue. She’s done some things that I’m not a fan of. But I’ve seen her writhing in agony while the sky breaks apart. She says this whole thing might kill her. I can’t let that happen. Through all the time that I’ve been alive, she’s been there. So if she’s going to keep everything under wraps, then I’ll go along with that. I’ve lost everything else. I won’t lose her too.”</p><p>Gordo engulfed her in a hug. “You’ve got me,” she said in Buffy’s ear. Over the android’s shoulder, Buffy saw something that looked remarkably like understanding flicker across Seven’s face before it returned to its normal icy calm.</p><p>After what felt like the longest ride of her life, the turbolift doors slid open. Seven walked through them almost before they’d finished opening. Buffy’s smile widened and became more genuine, although the bitterness didn’t entirely fade. It made sense that the ex-drone would be uncomfortable with emotional displays like that. After all, she was pretty new to emotion in general.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Gordo murmured.</p><p>“I’ve got to be, right? I’m the girl who fights the bad guys.” Buffy shrugged. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”</p><p>Gordo looked dubious, but she distentangled herself from Buffy. “Okay then. If you’re sure.”</p><p>“Oh, I’m definitely not sure, but let’s go anyway.”</p><p>The pair walked into the cargo bay. Seven appeared to have scrounged a table-top holo-emitter from somewhere. She was currently displaying an image of a straight line. “There are two common ways to ensure that one is immune to temporal alterations,” Seven began without preamble.</p><p>“We’re going straight into lecture mode? Cool.”</p><p>“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to understand any of this?” Gordo said.</p><p>“Dunno. Did you follow the things that Giles used to ramble about?”</p><p>“Not really. Back then I kinda went where he pointed and punched what needed punching.”</p><p>“Well, you’re a big girl robot now. Plus maybe having some sort of temporal language type thing in your head’ll help you follow this.”</p><p>Gordo rubbed her head. “Maybe.”</p><p>“I will try to make this as easy for you to understand as possible,” Seven said. Buffy got the impression that Seven saw that as a gigantic concession.</p><p>“Thanks!”</p><p>Seven inclined her head briefly before continuing as though she hadn’t been interrupted. “The easiest is to remove oneself from normal space. One cannot be affected by something if one isn’t there. In essence, the non-standard space acts as a buffer.” On the hologram, a dot with a bubble around it appeared in parallel to the line. The line pulsed once, emitting a wave of light. It hit the bubble but didn’t penetrate it.</p><p>“Uh huh. Basically a force-field. With you so far.”</p><p>The hologram reset. “The second is a variation of the first. If one travels into the past and alters it, the future will change. But, at the moment that the alteration takes place, one is not physically present in the timeline that is being altered. The future that that figure came from will cease to exist, but because they weren’t there they are immune to the alteration.” A dot appeared at the end of the line, then jumped back a few inches. A second line branched from that point, and the dot travelled along it while the original line faded away.</p><p>“Yeah, I’ve seen time travel movies before. Makes sense to me.”</p><p>“Unfortunately, in our case, neither of these options are viable,” Seven said while the hologram reset again. “If we move into a different space, the Krenim will detect us and will most likely destroy us with conventional weapons. While we could in theory jump back in time, that will have no effect on the Krenim whatsoever. They will be free to continue their alterations unimpeded. The issue then becomes a question as to whether it’s possible to design something that protects us from temporal alterations without removing us from normal space.”</p><p>“Which is what you want from me, yeah?” Gordo said. “You think I’ve got some kind of shielding in my head.”</p><p>“I can protect the ship <i>physically</i> from the effect of the alterations. I’ve analysed the data from the spatial distortion. A reconfiguration of the ship’s force-field harmonics would protect us from that. But it isn’t necessary.”</p><p>“So you don’t need me?” Gordo stood up. “Well, good lecture, but if that’s it then I want to go and see why your doctor doesn’t have a name.”</p><p>Buffy grabbed her arm. “I’m going to guess there’s some kind of catch.”</p><p>“You are correct. Unless one is attempting to move into a region of subspace, then the distortion has no physical effect. Once it impacts the ship, the distortion never existed. It’s a wave-front of a temporal explosion that retroactively vanishes once time changes. There are no <i>physical</i> effects, but there are mental ones. I don’t know how to protect the crew’s memories from the alteration. A shield could protect the ship at the moment that the distortion hits, but the crew’s memories stretch back to before the shield was installed. If time changes, the crew’s memories will change with it. They may not remember why they installed the shielding in the first place. They may not remember the Krenim at all. Without knowing exactly what the Krenim will alter, there is no way of knowing all the variables. The effect on the crew’s memories is incalculable.”</p><p>“Why can’t you give us little headbands with force-fields in them?” Buffy suggested. “Memory engrams are physical things. If you can protect us physically, then you can protect our memories.”</p><p>“For the same reason that the shuttle remained present on Nikrenna. The only reason the shuttle was present in the original timeline was in order to carry cargo. Then time changed, and there was no longer any cargo to carry. But the shuttle remained. The reason for its presence changed. It couldn’t return to the ship as the ship wasn’t there, but it couldn’t just appear on the planet for no reason. Either would break the laws of physics. So memories were changed in order for there to be a reason for its presence.”</p><p>“You say that as though the universe has a brain or something. Like, because there was a reason for the shuttle to be there everything didn’t go into total meltdown. I don’t think the universe cares if something doesn’t make sense. It never has before.”</p><p>“Paradox. The shuttle was present – therefore it had to be present. The fact that it was there guaranteed that it would be there. Reality changed to accommodate it. Memories are easier to change than the laws of physics. If I design headbands, and then the Krenim alter time, they won’t protect you. There will be another reason for you to wear them. The shield <i>should</i> protect you, but it doesn’t. It can’t. The paradox insures itself, and in so doing it creates another paradox.”</p><p>Buffy’s head filled with a ringing sound, as though a massive migraine was about to hit. But the pain never arrived. Instead her lungs seemed to empty, and there was a moment of panic when she felt as though she couldn’t breathe. There were few things that made her feel more claustrophobic than being buried alive, but predestination was one of them. She’d spent too much of her life being a victim of prophecy. She heard Illyria’s voice echoing in her ears. <i>“It means we lose.”</i></p><p>Surprisingly, it was the sensation of Gordo’s eyes on her that brought her back. Or maybe it wasn’t so surprising – she’d been built to be like Buffy. If anyone could understand, it would be her. Though Seven was still talking, Gordo clearly wasn’t paying attention to her. Her hand was outstretched as though she was reaching out to touch Buffy but wasn’t sure if she should.</p><p>Just like that, Buffy knew what to do next. She clapped her hands with a suddenness that made Gordo jump and Seven raise an eyebrow. “Right! Here’s the plan. Seven, you tell the captain that you’ve got your shielding sorted out. She’ll probably get Illyria to check it out – she’s the only other person on this ship that’d understand any of this stuff – but I’m sure I can get her to lie. Then we start manufacturing them or whatever we need to do, and we share the specs with Narim. We’ve got to get as many of these shields in as many places as possible.”</p><p>“Um,” Gordo said, raising a hand, “isn’t sharing stuff that doesn’t work kinda… bad?”</p><p>“It would be, if the thing breaking time was natural. But the Krenim want their empire back. Whatever they tried last time messed up massively because of us. Just think what would happen if there are hundreds of shields? It doesn’t matter if everyone forgets <i>why</i> the shields are there. It’ll still screw with whatever the Krenim are trying to do. They won’t be able to destroy all of the ships. Their sensors’ll tell them that, and Nythea said they’ve already lost one war. They won’t even try to get involved in another. Eventually, they’ll trace it all back to us. If we’re going to stop them, then we need data. We won’t get it hiding out here in an asteroid field making repairs. If the Krenim want their empire back, they’ll have to come to us.”</p><p>“All of that will be irrelevant if we forget that the Krenim exist,” Seven pointed out.</p><p>“That’s where Gordo comes in. You might not be able to protect our memories, but hers’ll be just fine.”</p><p>“I’m not sure about that,” Gordo said dubiously.</p><p>“Sure you are. You said that things get fuzzy after a few alterations. If I’m right, then the Krenim will stop at one.”</p><p>“You’re staking too much on that,” Seven said. “I am unwilling to proceed without talking to Ensign Illyria. She knows more about the android’s capabilities than I. If we’re going to go through with this, we’ll need her support.”</p><p>Buffy threw up her hands. “Fine! Whatever. Call her in for a second opinion if you want. But this plan is a hell of a lot better than sitting around waiting for time to break. Besides, doesn’t seem like you’ve got any better ideas. Right?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter Twenty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Seven moved to a workstation and picked up a combadge. “Ensign Illyria, report to Cargo Bay 2.”</p><p>Illyria’s reply came almost immediately. “Understood.”</p><p>“Belay that!” Janeway barked over the comms. “What do you want her for?”</p><p>Seven briefly glanced at Buffy. “Her expertise is required.”</p><p>“B’Elanna can’t spare her at the moment. We’ll have a briefing at seventeen-hundred hours to discuss your findings.” That was a little less than half an hour away. Enough time for Janeway to figure out what she wanted to do next.</p><p>“Acknowledged.” Seven put the combadge down with an expression of mild distaste. Buffy supposed that, for someone used to instant communication across an entire hive-mind, the badge seemed incredibly primitive. She turned to look at Buffy. “She’s lying.”</p><p>Buffy nodded. “Mmm. Blue and I aren’t exactly flavour of the month around here at the moment. She thinks we’re plotting something.”</p><p>“Well, we kinda are,” Gordo pointed out.</p><p>“Yeah, but at least she could trust us not to be doing the thing we’re doing. It’s not like we’re doing bad guy stuff.”</p><p>“A certain level of trust is required if we are to proceed,” Seven said. “If we can’t tell the ensign that she should lie for us, this plan of yours is futile.”</p><p>Whatever Buffy might have said was interrupted by a musical chime and a swirl of light as Illyria transported in. “What did you want me for?”</p><p>Buffy scowled. “Well, we wanted you not to light up the ship’s sensors for one thing. We’ve got enough problems without you using our transporters as your own personal delivery service.”</p><p>“I used the transporter on one of the shuttles. In any case, the sensors on this ship are mine. They reveal what I want them to reveal. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, we have twenty-six minutes before our presence is required elsewhere. What did you want me for?”</p><p>“We have a plan to force the Krenim to come to us,” Seven said. She quickly outlined the idea they’d developed.</p><p>Illyria stood and listened silently, her expression inscrutable. “What will you do with the excess energy?” She said once Seven had finished.</p><p>A minute furrow appeared on Seven’s forehead. “Explain.”</p><p>“You’re planning on intentionally causing multiple paradoxes. What are you planning on doing with the energy they generate?”</p><p>“Oh!” Buffy said suddenly. “This is about what you were saying back on the bridge, yeah? About the Krenim’s ship being powered by a recursive drive thingy? They power themselves with paradoxes, right?”</p><p>“That’s correct.” </p><p>“See, sometimes I listen to your technobabble stuff,” Buffy grinned. “But if we’re going to be shipping headbands to the Nihydron and the Zahl, then the paradoxes won’t be <i>here</i>, they’ll be wherever the ships are.” </p><p>“Headbands are unnecessary. We should install the shielding directly on the ships. If the ships are close enough to us then a power transfer link would allow for the energy generated by the paradoxes to be stored. In any case, it would be for the best if the ships were close by. We’ll need as many ships to deal with the Krenim as possible. We don’t know the full extent of their capabilities.”</p><p>“What would you do with the energy?” Seven asked.</p><p>Illyria clasped her hands behind her back. Her eyes glittered green in the reflected light of the Borg alcove. When she replied, her voice was flat and level. “I want to make a bomb.”</p><p>Despite herself, Buffy shivered. “Could you make with the ‘splaining, but hold the ominousness?”</p><p>“The Krenim ship will be untouchable by conventional weaponry. Because it creates paradoxes, it must be intact in order to be able to create paradoxes. The only way to defeat them is to create a bigger one. A vast discharge of tachyokinetic energy in a localised region of space will overwhelm their recursive shielding and allow us to destroy the ship.”</p><p>“I don’t like the sound of vast discharges of touchy-cosmetic energy,” Gordo said. Despite her words, her tone was serious. “I’ve been blown up once. Didn’t like it enough that I’d want to do it again.”</p><p>“I agree,” Buffy said. “I’m all for luring the Krenim here for some kind of shenanigans, but what you’re suggesting sounds kinda bad.”</p><p>Both of them turned to Seven. Neither Buffy nor Gordo were anything close to being engineers. They might be able to do a few minor repairs here and there, but theoretical stuff like this went way over their heads. While Illyria probably could explain it to them, Buffy, at least, didn’t trust the explanation to be entirely unbiased. She suspected that Seven might be able to offer a bit more neutral.</p><p>For her part, Seven seemed to have forgotten that the pair was there. She was looking solely at Illyria. Her head was slightly tilted to one side as though she was thinking. “I have a question,” Seven said slowly.</p><p>Her question went unasked, however, as the doors to the cargo bay slid open to reveal Janeway, Chakotay, and three security officers. All five of them were armed.</p><p>“Were my orders unclear, Ensign?” Janeway said to Illyria. Her voice was deceptively mild.</p><p>“No, ma’am.”</p><p>“Then why are you here?”</p><p>“Your orders endanger this crew and the entire space-time continuum, so I ignored them,” Illyria said blandly.</p><p>Janeway’s eyes widened slightly at that. Behind her, Buffy could see Chakotay fight down an inappropriate smile. “You are aware that ignoring the orders of a superior officer is a court martial offence?” Without waiting for a reply she glanced at Buffy. “I would have expected better from you, Ensign.”</p><p>“Hey, it’s not <i>my</i> fault she showed up. I told her it was, like, mutiny-adjacent but she didn’t listen,” Buffy protested. “We’re the same rank anyway, it’s not like I can order her to go away.”</p><p>“Are you really angling for a promotion here, Buffy?” Despite the situation, Chakotay seemed to be finding this all rather amusing.</p><p>“I mean, I wouldn’t be against something like that,” Buffy replied with a grin. Janeway glared at her.</p><p>“We have found a way to shield ourselves from the Krenim,” Seven interrupted. Buffy couldn’t if she was trying to diffuse the discussion or if she’d just had enough of listening to it. “We can begin production immediately. You or Commander Chakotay can begin overtures to the Nihydron.”</p><p>“How does it work?” Although Janeway was clearly displeased with Illyria, she was still a scientist at heart. She couldn’t help but be a little excited.</p><p>Seven held out a PADD. “Here are the schematics.”</p><p>Janeway quickly skimmed through it. “You know that sharing this technology is a breach of the Prime Directive. The species in this sector have outlawed any research into temporal science.”</p><p>“Well, for one thing Nythea asked us to help her and she sent a friend to hook us up with some parts,” Buffy began. “For another, the Directive kinda stops being so important if time breaks. There’s a time and a place for non-interference, and it isn’t here and now.”</p><p>“I agree.”</p><p>Buffy started. “Wait, you do? Then what’s with the inquisition and coming in here armed to the teeth?”</p><p>“I don’t like the way you went about this,” Janeway answered. “Your friend disobeyed direct orders and tampered with our sensors to cover for herself.”</p><p>“Which she wouldn’t have had to do if you weren’t doing the total suspicion thing. If you’re looking for mutineers then you’ll find them, even if they weren’t there before. I get that ship’s repairs are important and all, but Illyria’s your expert on time stuff and you put her to work fixing EPS conduits. If you don’t mind me speaking my mind – and I’m assuming you don’t, ‘cause you haven’t thrown me in the brig yet – then I’d say that Illyria was right. Your orders are stupid.”</p><p>“There’s a way that we do things in Starfleet. We have rules and regulations and directives for a reason. You can’t just ignore them because you don’t agree with them.”</p><p>“But, see, the thing is that you agree with me. You just said that. The only reason we’re standing here bickering about this is because you decided to make with the testing and Blue didn’t make the grade. If you’d trusted us, like you trusted us for the last four years, then we wouldn’t have a problem.”</p><p>“I trusted you for the last four years because I didn’t know that you had secrets. Now I do. I know that you aren’t telling me everything, and that all of your secrets revolve around whatever’s going on in this sector. You say that you’re not a danger to the crew, and honestly I believe that. But I wouldn’t be a good captain if I just took you at your word.”</p><p>“Man, Seska really did a number on you, huh?”</p><p>Seemingly despite herself, Janeway smiled. “You could say that.”</p><p>“I’ll tell you what, ma’am. If you stop acting like we’re going to mutiny, we’ll stop mutinying. Scouts honour.”</p><p>Janeway turned to Chakotay. “What do you think?”</p><p>Chakotay looked from Janeway to Buffy and back again. “I’ve already told you what I think.”</p><p>Janeway grimaced, as though that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She thought for several seconds before nodding. “Done. You’re effectively on probation. You have my support, but if you abuse it even a little then I’m throwing you in the brig until we leave this sector.”</p><p>“I’ll take it.”</p><p>Janeway glanced over at Illyria. “Ensign?”</p><p>Illyria’s eyes snapped up. “Yes?”</p><p>“Do you agree?”</p><p>“Agree to what?”</p><p>“Were you even listening?” Janeway glared at her.</p><p>“No. Your words are tiresome and dull. There are more important matters to attend to.”</p><p>Janeway’s eyebrows went up. “Like what, exactly?”</p><p>“The Krenim time ship has just dropped out of warp on the outskirts of this asteroid belt. They’re trying to find us.”</p><p>“How do you know?”</p><p>“Why else would they be here? The geological value of these asteroids is minimal. Their only possible value lies in their paramagnetic fields, and that’s only useful if you’re trying to hide.”</p><p>“How did you know that the Krenim ship's there at all?”</p><p>Illyria briefly glanced at Buffy. “I believe that Ensign Summers would tell you that it’s because I’m an alien from the dawn of the universe who only happens to look like a young woman from Texas.”</p><p>Buffy grinned. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”</p><p>Janeway looked at the pair for a long moment before tapping her combadge. “Harry, is there anything on our long range sensors?”</p><p>“Hard to tell, ma’am. The asteroids interfere with our sensors beyond a certain distance. Why?”</p><p>“Look for elevated tachyon levels.”</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.” A few seconds later he said “Tachyon levels are higher than expected, but the difference is negligible.”</p><p>“Would it be consistent with the tachyon scattering field the Krenim ship generated?”</p><p>“Yes. Uh, yes, ma’am.” Harry sounded startled.</p><p>“Cut power to all non-essential operations. We’re going dark. If you can find a way to warn Narim without drawing attention, then do it.”</p><p>“Yes ma’am.” Instantly the lights dimmed.</p><p>Janeway looked at Illyria. “Well, Ensign. You’re the expert. What’s our next move?”</p><p>“I take a shuttle and try and leave the asteroid belt. They find me and bring me aboard to question me about where <i>Voyager</i> is. Then I disable the ship’s core and the problem is neutralised.”</p><p>“You really think you can pull that off by yourself?”</p><p>“Yes,” Illyria said without hesitating.</p><p>“Unfortunately you won’t get a chance to prove it. I’m coming with you,” Janeway said.</p><p>“Blue, if they’ve got wacky time stuff on board, then you’ll need some help. Last time that time got pulled out of joint you didn’t exactly take it well,” Buffy said. “I’ll come too. Um, assuming that the captain doesn’t object.”</p><p>“The captain doesn’t.”</p><p>“I’ve always wanted to be on a time machine,” Gordo interjected. “Plus I’m the only one with temporal shielding in my head, so it seems like I should probably tag along.”</p><p>“The most efficient allocation of resources would indicate that I should also be part of this mission,” Seven added.</p><p>Janeway shook her head. “No, Seven. If Illyria’s on the Krenim ship then we’ll need someone here who knows their way around temporal science, and that’s you.”</p><p>“I assume you’ll ignore my strenuous protests that I should be leading this mission and you should stay behind,” Chakotay said drily.</p><p>“Correct.” Janeway patted him on the arm. “I was a science officer before I ever was a captain. I can’t pass up the opportunity to get a look at a ship like that, even if we are trying to destroy it.”</p><p>“I guessed as much.” Chakotay sounded resigned.</p><p>“If there’s an issue of Ensign Illyria’s health, then you may need someone else who is familiar with temporal science,” Seven pointed out.</p><p>“Oh, let her come, Captain,” Buffy said. “Not like having an expert hiding far away from the thing they’re supposed to be the expert in is a good idea. Besides, if you’re doing the whole probation thing then shouldn’t you personally keep an eye on the only person on board who’s actually come right out and said that they’re going to betray you?”</p><p>For a moment Janeway looked like she was going to argue, but then she glanced over at Illyria and apparently decided against it. “Fine. Let’s go.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter Twenty-One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So, Ensign,” Janeway said to Illyria almost as soon as the shuttle left <i>Voyager</i>, “tell me about yourself.”</p><p>Buffy briefly glanced away from the viewscreen. She was the pilot – she had far and away the most experience, and if they were going to leave the asteroid field without the Krenim retracing their route back to <i>Voyager</i> then they’d need her skills. Illyria was sitting next to her. She’d sat there as soon as they’d entered the shuttle, which had clearly surprised Janeway as that should have been the captain’s seat. It had surprised Buffy as well. Illyria normally preferred to stand, presumably to make it easier for her to look down her nose at people. Then she saw that Illyria was gripping the arms of the chair so tightly that her knuckles were white. She could hear the metal groaning under the pressure. It looked like she was sitting because she didn’t trust herself to stand.</p><p>Gordo was sprawled on the floor in the back. She’d said that the engines felt all tingly and so she’d decided to starfish on the floor to feel them better. Seven had declined to sit and was instead standing just behind Illyria. Buffy wondered idly if Seven even <i>could</i> sit – while the silvery dermaplastic garment the Doctor had made for might do an admirable job of keeping her skin together, it didn’t look like it was the easiest thing to move in. Janeway, meanwhile, was sitting just behind Buffy. She was leaning forward and looking at Illyria intently.</p><p>“What do you want to know?” Illyria said. Her voice was calm and level. There was no sign that she was feeling any strain, but then this was Illyria. Weakness was for lesser creatures, which was to say everyone other than her. Illyria’s voice didn’t shake because it was in the grip Illyria’s mind.</p><p>“Apparently you’re an alien from the dawn of time. Can you tell me something about that? What’s the name of your species? What are they like? Where do they come from? How come they never made first contact? How do you know Summers?”</p><p>“There is no one like me. No one alive. My species has no name that can be pronounced by anyone living. We died so long ago that it doesn’t make sense to wonder when we died. The universe was different then. Smaller. But that was then and this is now. These days the dead don’t make first contact.”</p><p>Even though Illyria sounded clinical and cold, a lump still formed in Buffy’s throat. There’d been so many times when she’d have liked to speak to people who were gone. She’d been told that death was her gift, but she’d never been able to return it. </p><p>“How are you here?” Janeway’s said gently. Although Illyria’s voice gave no indication that this was a difficult topic for her, Janeway was clever enough to read between the lines. “How did you survive?” </p><p>“I didn’t,” Illyria said simply. “I was the god and the king to an empire that spread so far that it would have dwarfed this galaxy, and then I died.”</p><p>Buffy knew what the next question Janeway wanted to ask was. She also knew why she was hesitating. How do you ask someone <i>how</i> they died? </p><p>The silence dragged on for a couple of seconds before Illyria spoke again. “Continue. Your inane prattle is a barely adequate distraction.”</p><p>“From what?”</p><p>There was a screech of tearing metal as Illyria ripped the arms from her chair without any apparent effort. She didn’t even seem to be aware that she’d done it. “I can feel the Krenim ship. It is an aberration to everything that should be. I feel like I am about to break like glass. A distraction is welcome.” She might have been commenting on the weather, as far as her tone went.</p><p>“The Borg have assimilated thousands of species that have legends of an ancient species that once dominated their worlds before dying or being driven off,” Seven said. “We have always dismissed them as irrelevant and without factual basis. Are they based on your species?”</p><p>“Yes,” Illyria acknowledged. “On us or things like us.”</p><p>“How’d they drive you away?” Janeway asked curiously. “I know the Klingons claim that they killed their gods, but if you were… everything that you claim to be then that seems more than a little farfetched.”</p><p>“That was then,” Illyria said distantly. “This is now. Time changed and we changed with it. In most cases we changed from things that had been alive into things that were dead, but the point still stands. <i>N’sien fehill daneek pal. Nnea dal gevuul.</i>”</p><p>“That was Romulan,” Janeway said in surprise. Her brow furrowed. “Something about time and-“</p><p>“Time is the end of everything. Of all life,” Seven supplied.</p><p>“Cheerful,” Janeway said drily. “But what’s with the sudden Romulan?”</p><p>Illyria didn’t reply. Instead she dropped the fragments of the chair that she’d been holding. She stared at her hands as though she’d never seen them before. “They’re so close now.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.</p><p>“We’re almost out of the asteroid belt,” Buffy said hurriedly. “It won’t be long before the paragmagnetic fields stop hiding us from their sensors and they pick us up. Can you hold on till then?”  </p><p>“<i>Tulek nash-veh. Tel fo. Dungau shaya nash-veh.</i>”</p><p>“I am the vessel. The shell. I will break,” Seven translated. “Vulcan.”</p><p>“Not yet you won’t,” Buffy said grimly. “We’re out. They’ll be on us any second now.”</p><p>Illyria held up her hands. They trembled constantly. They were the normal, human pinkish colour that Illyria had been showing to the world for more than four years now, but as her control over her form slipped there blue patches of skin visible as well. </p><p>But that wasn’t all there was. Running over her skin and up her arm were strange cracks that weren’t skin at all. They were red, but there was nothing natural about it. It wasn’t the colour of flesh. It was like there was a light inside her and she was cracking and it was spilling out. It was a dark, ugly red, the colour of blood and torn muscles. Buffy had seen it once before, when the sky had cracked open and history had changed. </p><p>“Maybe astronauts win after all,” Illyria said, her voice small. Her eyes glittered in the red light reflected from her hands as a crack began to run up her cheek. “Who’d have thought it?”</p><p>“We’re being hailed. Opening a channel.” Buffy’s hands flew over the controls. She shot a quick look at Illyria and was almost blinded. “Audio only.”</p><p>A voice came over the comm system. “This is Captain Annorax of the ship <i>Droste</i>. Lower your shields and prepare to be transported aboard. Failure to comply will lead to your destruction.” The voice was male, calm and business-like. Buffy didn’t doubt that he’d do exactly what he said.</p><p>“Acknowledged,” Buffy said hurriedly before anyone else could say anything. “Lowering shields.”</p><p>The last thing she saw before being transported away was Illyria curled in on herself in the centre of a ball of incandescent crimson light, cracks running all over her body.</p><p>~*~</p><p>Transporting seemed to take a very long time. Buffy had been through some of humanity’s earliest transporters – though it had taken a little over a minute for the transportee to materialise, it had felt like it had taken more than a year. It had taken so long that she’d actually been able to feel herself be pulled apart and then put back together again, atom by atom. Other than coming back to life, it might have been the most physically painful thing that she’d ever experienced.</p><p>This wasn’t like that. This was like nothing at all. There was no movement, no sensation, nothing. Nothing but her in the dark, for what seemed like an eternity. It was duration but without anything actually going on.</p><p>And then, after an eternal moment, it was over. Buffy crouched over, hands on her knees, and took a deep heaving breath with lungs that she hadn’t had a moment ago. Her eyes were wide, and she stared at the floor as though it was the most comforting thing that she’d ever seen. After all, she hadn’t seen anything for a long, <i>long</i> time.</p><p>The air she was sucking in felt strange. Buffy had spent a lot of time on spaceships. She’d breathed in a lot of recycled air, but she’d never breathed in anything like this. It was fresh, almost as though they were outside, but she couldn’t shake the impression that this was air that had been fresh for a <i>very</i> long time.</p><p>Gradually, the memory of travelling through the abyss seemed to fade. She remembered where she was, what had happened. She looked around. Janeway was standing next to her. She was wild-eyed and looked more than a little green. Gordo was grinning like a maniac, looking like an adrenaline junkie who’d just gone on the world’s most dangerous rollercoaster. Seven was standing bolt upright with her arms rigid at her sides. Only the fact that her jaw was clenched and that there was a slight twitch under her eye indicated that there’d been anything amiss. Buffy guessed their non-organic components had helped them get through it.</p><p>Illyria, meanwhile, was curled on the floor. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and her arms were wrapped around her head. She didn’t seem to be breathing, but then she never did. She was as still as only someone who didn’t need to breathe could be.</p><p>Buffy instantly moved to check on her, but then Seven caught her eye and gave an infinitesimal nod. She guessed that the ex-drone’s implants told her that Illyria was fine or something like that.</p><p>In any case, it looked like she wasn’t going to get a chance to find out at the moment. It was only then that she noticed that they weren’t the only people in the room.</p><p>The Krenim turned out to be almost identical to humans except for dark lines around their ears that ran up the sides of their faces, almost like tattoos. There were five of them. Four of them were armed, although none of them were currently holding their weapons. The fifth man was the oldest of them. He was balding, and what hair he had left was thin and greying. His expression was stern. If Buffy had to guess, she’d say that he was the captain. She frowned as she tried to remember what he’d called himself. Anorak? It felt like it had been centuries since he’d hailed the shuttle.</p><p>“So,” probably Anorak said. “What do you want?”</p><p>“Shouldn’t we be asking you that?” Buffy said wryly. “You’re the one who threatened us unless we did what you said.”</p><p>“We told you what we want. There’s a war in this system. We gave you directions towards a nearby system, but you didn’t follow them. Instead you hid in an asteroid belt.”</p><p>“The Nihydron don’t think there’s a war. Or at least they don’t think there’s one now. I heard that there was one a while back though. I heard that you didn’t come out of it feeling too hot.” Buffy looked around. Although the room they were in was so sparsely furnished that it was more accurate to call it empty, it was still a far cry from what she’d expected to see in the ship of a race that Nythea had described as little more than thieves and beggars. It was several steps above Narim’s ship, and probably wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Starfleet ship. “You <i>are</i> the Krenim, right?”</p><p>Probably Anorak’s eyes narrowed. “You seem to have us a disadvantage. You know who we are, but we know next to nothing about you. We’ve been in this sector a long time and we’ve never seen a ship like yours.” He smiled coldly. “If we’re going to talk about what we want, let’s start there. Why don’t you tell us about yourselves?”</p><p>“I am Captain Janeway of the Federation ship <i>Voyager</i>,” Janeway said. Although she didn’t look like she was fully recovered, at least it seemed as though she wasn’t on the verge of being sick anymore. “We’re from the Alpha Quadrant. We’re trying to get home.”</p><p>“The Alpha Quadrant?” Probably Anorak said incredulously. “Do you really expect me to believe that? You’ve got a drone with you, and the heart of the Borg space is in the opposite direction from the Alpha Quadrant – a direction, incidentally, which just so happens to match the heading from which you entered this sector.”</p><p>“You think we’re Borg?” Buffy scoffed. “Are you serious? The Borg don’t make deals with people. They just roll in and assimilate them.”</p><p>“The Ensign is correct,” Seven added coolly. “I am being held against my will. The captain believes that I should develop my latent humanity.” The amount of scorn that she managed to pour into that last word showed what she thought about that.</p><p>“Oh, I don’t think you’re Borg. We’ve encountered them before. We’ve driven them away from this sector countless times over the years.”</p><p>“I find that hard to believe,” Seven said.</p><p>“Ah. You’re thinking about the Nihydron colony worlds the Borg assimilated. They don’t exist here anymore. Neither does the Borg presence. The past changed, and the present changed with it. Which you’d already know about, if you hadn’t been hiding away in an isolation field when the distortion hit,” probably Anorak said. “But that isn’t important now. I’m not interested in the Borg. I’m not interested in you, either, Captain. I’m not even interested in the android. No. It’s <i>you</i> that I’m curious about.” He gestured to Buffy. “You and the one bundled on the floor.”</p><p>“Me?” Buffy said in surprise. “What about me?”</p><p>“We scanned your shuttle before we beamed you aboard. We got some readings that we’ve never seen before. Readings that don’t make sense. Readings that should be impossible. Most of them, we think, came from your unconscious friend. But some of them came from you.” He looked at Buffy intently. “So. Tell me about yourself.”</p><p>“I’m guessing you don’t want to know that I’m a Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius, huh?”</p><p>Unsurprisingly, probably Anorak looked completely nonplussed by that. “No. I want to know what you are.”</p><p>“That’s kind of a long story,” Buffy said truthfully. “But hey, I guess you’ve got all the time in the world here, yeah?”</p><p>“So you would think,” probably Anorak said, his expression inscrutable. Buffy glanced over at Seven to see what she made of that, but the ex-drone’s face as blank as always. Buffy almost wished that Illyria was up and well. She might be about as expressive as a glacier, but Buffy had figured out how to read her over the centuries. “Let’s see if we can’t shorten your story.” He nodded to the other Krenim. “Shoot her.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The Krenim time ship has no canonical name. I chose <i>Droste</i> because, like most people, I’ve always wanted to name a spaceship after a Dutch cocoa brand. More seriously, it’s named after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droste_effect">Droste effect</a>, which is the effect of an image containing itself. This creates an infinitely recursive effect, at least as far as the image’s quality allows. This effect is named after the cocoa brand.</p><p>The Romulan and Vulcan language used here is accurate to the best of my extremely limited knowledge.</p><p>For those outside the UK, an anorak is a heavy coat that’s similar to a parka. It’s also slang for someone who’s interested in the details of a specific hobby to the exclusion of everything else. This isn’t especially relevant to the story beyond the fact that Annorax sounds like anorak, but if I’m going to talk about Dutch cocoa I might as well talk about British coats and slang too.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter Twenty-Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Whether it was because the Krenim were fast on the draw or Buffy was still recovering from the unusual transporter they used, they managed to draw their weapons before she had a chance to move.</p><p>They didn’t fire immediately, which suggested a couple of things. First, they weren’t comfortable shooting someone in cold blood. They were almost certainly scientists, given the type of ship they were on. The fact that <i>Droste</i> generated a tachyon scattering field to hide themselves rather than blowing up everyone who dared approach them told her that they preferred to avoid outright violence. They might never have been in a scenario like this before. At least not for a couple of centuries.</p><p>It also told her that they weren’t <i>absolutely</i> dedicated to their captain. A Cardassian, even a scientist, would have fired as soon as they got a chance. Their respect for or fear of authority was that strong. Whatever probably Anorak expected to get out of shooting her, his crew weren’t completely on board with it.</p><p>All of that passed through Buffy’s mind in the blink of an eye. She smiled inwardly. It was time for what she was best at.</p><p>Acting like a totally brainless bimbo.</p><p>She raised her hands above her head. She tried to make herself as small as possible, her entire body language screaming that she wasn’t a threat. Hopefully. “Um, have you thought about not doing that and doing something else instead? I mean, come <i>on</i>. You’ve got the weapons, and I don’t. Plus that transporter thing you’ve got is, like, majorly icky. I’m kinda thinking that I’d rather do the thing where I vomit all over the place rather than, you know, do the bleeding thing. Not that I like the vomiting thing, but my stomach didn’t like the transporting and it’s really telling me that I don’t have a choice. So if you could not with the guns but made with the passing of a bucket instead then that would be-“</p><p>Probably Anorak turned his head to the person nearest to him. “You saw the data. You know what it means, if it’s true.”</p><p>The Krenim’s expression hardened. He fired, but Buffy was already moving. The blast didn’t look like a phaser or any other directed energy weapons that Buffy had ever seen. It didn’t even seem to fire energy or plasma at all – the only sign that the Krenim had fired was a slight ripple in the air, like a heat mirage.</p><p>But Buffy leapt high in the air, above the blast. The other Krenim joined in, but they obviously hadn’t expected a moving target. They were decent shots, but they were obviously no soldiers and Buffy had spent lifetimes working out all the best ways to not get shot. </p><p>When they’d transported her they hadn’t rematerialized her phaser, but that didn’t mean that she was totally helpless. As she jumped she spun in the air, tearing her combadge from her uniform and hurling it at the nearest Krenim. It hit him in the forehead. He flinched and stumbled backwards. He was more startled that hurt. It would only take him a few seconds to recover.</p><p>Not that she needed anything more than that. It gave her the opportunity to close the distance. Only the person directly next to the man she’d thrown her badge at had a clear shot – the others who had been flanking their captain would risk hitting their comrades if they wanted to fire at her. Besides, it seemed like they had problems of their own. Gordo had mirrored Buffy’s actions, and the fact that she was wearing the biggest grin that Buffy had ever seen on her face meant that the Krenim were more than a little disconcerted. Buffy was confident that the other two wouldn’t be a problem.</p><p>The Krenim next to the one that she’d thrown her badge at took his shot. Buffy didn’t stop coming. She bent at the waist so that the odd ripple in the air went over her head. This close she felt some kind of discharge on her skin. For the briefest of moments it seemed like she was being scoured with sandpaper. Whatever weapons they were using, they were like nothing that Buffy had seen before. She definitely didn’t want to get hit by them.</p><p>Well, she thought as she kicked the Krenim in the side of his knee, hooked her foot around his leg and pushed down on his calf to propel her own knee into his stomach, she didn’t really want to get shot by anything. It had never been something she’d enjoyed. She grabbed his arm and slammed his hand into the ground, forcing him to drop his gun. She kicked it towards Janeway, and then hoisted the Krenim into the air and hurled him bodily at his recovering friend. They both went down in a tangle of limbs. Buffy casually walked over to them before they could extricate themselves and then slammed their heads together. She pulled the remaining gun from the Krenim’s nerveless fingers and then turned to face probably Anorak. She held it loosely at her side – she didn’t need it, and she was pretty sure that she could get out of this with the minimum amount of violence. Besides, probably Anorak was unarmed. On the other side of him, she saw that Gordo had also taken down her opponents and taken one of their weapons.</p><p>“So,” Buffy said brightly, “would you like to try that again but with more people with better training, or would you like to try diplomacy? Personally I’m hoping that you skip straight to the unconditional surrender, but really I’m easy.”</p><p>Gordo cleared her throat. “Just to check – are these the kinds of aliens I can kill?”</p><p>“I don’t know. I’m thinking that depends on Mister Captain Man here. So what do you say, Anorak?”</p><p>“Annorax,” Annorax replied reflexively. </p><p>Buffy snapped her fingers. “<i>That’s</i> what it was. Knew it wasn’t Anorak.”</p><p>“I was thinking Almanac,” Gordo said. “Yours is better.”</p><p>“I try.”</p><p>For someone who was facing two people who’d taken down four armed people in about ten seconds, Annorax looked remarkably unworried. “Isn’t there something that you’re missing?”</p><p>Buffy scratched her head. “Don’t think so. If you stop breaking time, we won’t make with the shooting. We’ll be out of your hair – or what’s left of it – with only the minimal amount of mayhem with flair.”</p><p>“Ooh, that rhymed!”</p><p>“It did a bit, didn’t it?” Buffy’s expression turned serious. “So, no, I’m thinking I didn’t miss anything unless you’re planning on making trouble.” She prodded one of the unconscious bodies in front of her with her foot. “Don’t think it’ll end up working out for you if you do.”</p><p>In lieu of a direct answer, Annorax just pointed.</p><p>Buffy was careful to keep Annorax in her field of view as she looked. She was sure that she could deal with anything he was likely to throw at her.</p><p>She was technically right. He wasn’t pointing at anything that had to do with him. It was a problem, sure, but it was a problem that Buffy had caused. It seemed like, while she’d been busy with the Krenim, she’d missed a scuffle going on behind her. Janeway was sprawled on the floor. She seemed to be unconscious and, as a result, hadn’t picked up the weapon that Buffy had kicked towards her. Seven had. And she was pointing it directly at Buffy. “Oh, hell.”</p><p>“I did tell you that I would betray you,” Seven said coolly.</p><p>“Yeah, you did. I kinda thought you’d pick a time that was a little less… suicidal.”</p><p>“I disagree with your assessment of the situation.”</p><p>“I’m sure you do, but you’d be wrong.” Buffy gestured towards Gordo. She didn’t bother to raise her weapon – she was absolutely sure that Seven was a better shot than the Krenim had been, and she wouldn’t hesitate like they had. “What do you think’s going to happen here? If you shoot me, Gordo shoots you. You aren’t fast enough to take both of us. Plus you and I both know that shooting me isn’t going to work out.”</p><p>“So you would think.” She turned her head to look at Annorax. “A paradox insures itself.”</p><p>Annorax looked startled for a brief moment, then nodded. Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve figured something out. I’m not going to like it, am I? But it doesn’t matter. You fire and Gordo kills you. There’s no point in trying to get back to the Borg if you end up dead. There’s no way that this is going to work out for you.”</p><p>“Again, I disagree with your assessment.” Seven’s arm moved in a blur. Buffy’s arm snapped up and pointed the weapon at her, but then she saw what Seven was aiming at now. She wasn’t aiming at Gordo, Janeway, or even Annorax. She’d pointed her weapon at Illyria. “Let me go or she dies.”</p><p>“You heard Illyria earlier. She’s an alien from the dawn of time. She’s died and come back before. You’re going to have to come up with a better threat.”</p><p>“<i>Time is the end of everything</i>, Ensign. This is a temporal weapon. Just being near the ship was almost enough to kill her. Do you really believe that she’ll survive being shot by a weapon designed to kill <i>you</i>?”</p><p>Buffy tilted her head on one side. “Weapons are designed to kill <i>everyone</i>. That’s the point of them. This one I’m holding, for example, is looking more and more like it’s gonna kill you. You’d better believe me when I say that if you shoot Illyria then you won’t make it out of this room alive.”</p><p>“Then it appears that we’re at a stalemate.” Seven’s eyes bored into Buffy’s. “Selfishness, Ensign. You won’t fire unless I do.”</p><p>“Guess so,” Buffy said grudgingly. “Looks like we’re in a good old-fashioned standoff.” She looked over at Gordo. “Hey, would you mind pointing your thingy at Annorax? At the moment he’s just about the only one with some leverage here.”</p><p>“Sure.” Gordo raised her weapon and pointed it at Annorax, who didn’t seem particularly fazed. “You make any moves, Alpine Yak, and there’ll be trouble.”</p><p>“Alpine Yak? Really? That’s what you’re going with here?”</p><p>“Well ex<i>cuse</i> me. Turns out that spending a hundred years or so with no one to talk to but sculptures doesn’t exactly sharpen the wit.”</p><p>“Well, anyway, now that we’re all cosy and ready with the mutually assured destruction, would you mind explaining exactly what you meant by that pointed comment about weapons designed to kill me?”</p><p>Annorax spoke before Seven had a chance. “What exactly are your terms?”</p><p>“Didn’t I mention the unconditional surrender? I’m sure I mentioned it.”</p><p>“Yep, you did,” Gordo said loyally. </p><p>“I wasn’t talking to you,” Annorax said.  He nodded towards Seven. “What do <i>you</i> want?”</p><p>“We want to take the shuttle and return to Borg space.” Buffy noted that Seven had slipped back into the traditional Borg habit of speaking in first person plural. She doubted that was a good sign. “We want to take her with us.” Seven made a minute gesture towards Illyria.</p><p>“Hold up,” Buffy said. “You want to take the person you’re threatening to shoot with you? Isn’t that, like, trying to convince us to let you go by threatening to shoot yourself in the foot? If you want to take her with you that kind of suggests that you aren’t going to shoot her, which means that I can make with the shooting.”</p><p>“What makes you think that we’d let you take her?” Annorax said. To Buffy’s surprise, he didn’t sound like he was actually against Seven’s proposal. He just wanted to know why she was making it. “I won’t claim to know exactly what she is, but she’s obviously a threat to everything that we’re doing here.”</p><p>“She is Borg,” Seven replied, as though that was the only answer that she needed to give. To her mind, perhaps it was.</p><p>“Is she, now?” Annorax asked thoughtfully. “That would explain why we didn’t originally detect her or her,”  he gestured to Buffy. “There was enough Borg technology on your ship to mask them. But that doesn’t explain why you think we’d let her go. Letting someone who seems to be just a short step away from being some kind of temporal bomb return to the Collective seems like a bad idea. We’ve dealt with the Borg before. We don’t need someone like her with them.”</p><p>“You’ll let her go because you have to let her go. How many paradoxes do you think that you can fight?”</p><p>“For those of us who don’t know what’s going on and are me, would you mind explaining what you’re talking about?” Buffy said.</p><p>Seven looked at her. “The language that Illyria used to create the temporal shielding in the android is familiar to me.”</p><p>Buffy frowned. “I thought you said that you’d never seen anything like it before. Looks like you’re really getting the hang of lying.”</p><p>“I did not lie. I’ve never seen that language before. My memory is flawless. I remember everything that I knew as a drone, but there is nothing in my memory that is even close to similar to that language. Nevertheless, it is familiar to me. The only possible explanation is that, at some point, she becomes part of the Collective. The qualities of the language are such that it echoes backwards in time, meaning that awareness of it predates the knowledge of it.”</p><p>“I guess that explains how you guessed that it came from Gordo’s memory engrams. I thought you’d made a bit of a leap at the time. But still, it seems like you’re making another leap now. Just ‘cause you’ve had a bit of déjà vu doesn’t mean that there’s a paradox in play. You’ve had a bunch of implants removed, like, a couple of days ago and it’s been non-stop stress since then. It makes sense that you’d get confused about a few things here or there.”</p><p>“I am <i>Borg</i>. I don’t get confused. A paradox is the only explanation that makes sense. Coming here, to a place that feeds on paradoxes, almost killed her. There’s a paradox centred on her. She can’t die here because she has to join the Collective.”</p><p>“This language you’re talking about sounds interesting, and you make a convincing argument,” Annorax said, “but altering time is our speciality here. Even if you’re right, that doesn’t mean that we can’t nip the paradox in the bud before it gets too far. That’s what we do.”</p><p>“Once the probability of a paradox-“</p><p>“Yes, yes, I know.” Annorax waved a dismissive hand. “But probabilities can be changed. History can be rewritten. The past can change and the present will change with it. Things that are gone can come back again. But if we’re going to make changes, the <i>right</i> changes, then I can’t let you go.”</p><p>Seven didn’t reply. At least not with words. Instead, she levelled her weapon at Annorax, moving in such a deliberately telegraphed way that Buffy couldn’t miss what she was doing, and fired.</p>
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<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter Twenty-Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nothing happened. There was no distortion in the air. Annorax didn’t die. He just stood there smiling as though Seven had made a joke that only he understood. Seven looked at the weapon, then fired again. Nothing continued to happen.</p><p>“Did you really think that I’d come in here with weapons that you could use against me?” Annorax said wryly. </p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Meh. Everything’s a weapon if you try hard enough.” She lobbed the weapon at Annorax. It hit him in the chest – he didn’t make any move to depend himself. For the first time since meeting him, he seemed surprised. He staggered backwards, more from the shock that something had hit him than because of the actual impact. Given the way that he’d been acting, Buffy had expected him to have some kind of personal force-field so she hadn’t used all her strength. Still, she took advantage of his momentary surprise to leap towards him.</p><p>He looked up at her, eyes wide. “Engage.”</p><p>“Transporters engaged,” a woman’s voice said, coming seemingly from nowhere. Unlike the standard voice that the Federation used for all of its computers, this one didn’t sound stilted or artificial. Buffy couldn’t tell whether that meant that they had more sophisticated computers than the Federation did – given the kind of technology they seemed to have it was definitely possible – or if it was just an actual person that Annorax had left manually manning the transporters.</p><p>Not that it really mattered. As fast as Buffy was, she wasn’t faster than a transporter. When she tried to grab Annorax her hands closed around nothing but air as he faded into a washed-out, sepia version of himself before vanishing entirely. She looked around and saw that the unconscious Krenim were gone too, as were their weapons. They were alone.</p><p>“Are we still on board with the killing the cyborg plan?” Gordo said.</p><p>Buffy sighed and turned to face Seven. If the ex-drone was bothered about the fact that she was left unarmed in a room with someone that she’d been pointing a weapon at not long before, she didn’t show it. “That depends. Are you planning on doing any more stupid things?”</p><p>“I never plan to do anything stupid.”</p><p>“Of course you don’t.” Buffy fought down the urge to facepalm. “What I mean is, have you thought about not making with the backstabbing and, I don’t know, doing practically anything else instead?”</p><p>“The current situation is not conducive to betrayal.”</p><p>“So basically you’re saying you’ll be right back at the backstabbing as soon as you think it’ll get you somewhere. Great. Are you actually <i>trying</i> to get me to kill you?”</p><p>“I am simply apprising you of the facts. I doubt that you would believe me if I told you that I wasn’t planning on betraying you. I don’t see any value in subterfuge in this case.”</p><p>“No. I guess you wouldn’t.” Buffy scrubbed her face with one hand. She didn’t need this right now. Not on top of everything else. When she’d suggested that Seven should come with them, she’d thought that whatever Borg-y bond she had with Illyria would be enough to stop her from leaving them high and dry. She hadn’t banked on Seven thinking that there was a paradox that required Illyria joining the Collective. It didn’t even matter whether that was true or not. That was a problem for later. Right now, the biggest problem was that Seven <i>believed</i> that it was true. “Right then. Gordo, you take Seven and have her stand over there. If she does anything shady then you can make with whatever level of violence you feel necessary.”</p><p>“Um. When you say shady, what exactly d’you mean? Been kinda out of the loop on the sort of things that people do these days.”</p><p>“Eh, I don’t know. Probably if she does anything other than standing there looking like some kind of scornful statue.”</p><p>“Right. Gotcha.” Gordo ushered Seven into a corner.</p><p>Buffy moved over to Janeway. She took her hand, feeling for a pulse, and was relieved to find a strong one. Seven hadn’t bothered to do any permanent damage. Doing anything more than knocking her unconscious was an unnecessary waste of resources. She moved Janeway into the recovery position. There wasn’t much else that she could do. She didn’t have a medkit, and given that she and Gordo had knocked out four Krenim between them she doubted they’d be kind enough to take Janeway to their sickbay. Besides, she’d seen a lot of head trauma in her time. If she had to guess, Janeway would wake up before too long, probably with only a minor concussion.</p><p>Illyria, however, was an entirely different story. She hadn’t moved at all since they’d been transported on board. She was still curled into a ball, hands covering her head. Looking closely, she saw that there still cracks on her hands. On the plus side, she wasn’t spilling crimson light anymore, and as Buffy watched the cracks didn’t seem to be spreading. Whatever damage being near the recursive drive had done didn’t seem to be getting any worse. At least, not as far as she could tell – the fact that she had no idea what had actually happened to Illyria in the first place meant that she had absolutely no idea how to assess her situation.</p><p>“Blue? Illyria?” Buffy said tentatively. “The bad guys are gone. You can get up now.”</p><p>She waited for Illyria to respond for a few seconds. Then she waited several more. Nothing. There was no indication that Illyria heard her at all. For all she knew, Illyria could be as unconscious as Janeway.</p><p>A treacherous thought suggested that Illyria might in fact be dead and she was just looking at her broken shell, but she quashed it as soon as it occurred to her. Illyria couldn’t be dead. No.</p><p>“Blue?” She reached out warily to put a hand on Illyria’s shoulder. </p><p>There had been a time, centuries ago, when she’d been a tactile person. She’d touched and hugged and held people every chance she got, because there had been a war on and she didn’t know when or <i>if</i> she’d get the chance to do it again. Then time had passed and she’d stopped touching people at all. Distance was easier. Being alone was easier, even when there was someone else nearby. It hurt less. Gordo hugging her was the first time that she’d let anyone do that for more than two hundred years, and even then she hadn’t been able to bring herself to reciprocate.</p><p>She thought that she’d hug Illyria if she just <i>woke up</i>.</p><p>Before she could touch her, though, Illyria moved so quickly that not even Buffy saw her move at all. One second she’d been curled on the floor, dead to the world – unconscious – and the next she was standing about six feet away.</p><p>She didn’t look well. She was hunched over as though it hurt too much stand upright. There were cracks running up her hands, hidden underneath her uniform before they re-emerged at her neck. Every now and then there were areas where there should have been skin but instead there was nothing at all, just an empty void where flesh should be. Where there should have been patches of blue skin that were almost like scales, the skin was instead translucent. It seemed to be lit from beneath by a pale blue light that pulsed weakly.</p><p>Her face, however, was the most striking thing. Half of it was normal, in the sense that it didn’t look different from the rest of her, but the other half of her looked like it had <i>shattered</i>. There were dozens of mismatched shards that looked like nothing more than a badly assembled jigsaw. That included her eye. It looked like something that had been made by someone who had heard about blue eyes but had never seen one before. There were countless shards of every possible shade of blue.</p><p>“Oh, Illyria,” Buffy breathed. “Are you – I’m – is there anything I can do?”</p><p>Illyria’s hands clenched into fists. She closed her eyes. Her eyelid travelled over the pieces of her shattered eye at different rates as though each of them existed just slightly out of sync from normal time. Buffy was forcibly reminded of what Illyria had been like when Kes had left the ship. </p><p>Then, suddenly, her eyes opened again. Her hands unclenched and she stood upright. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she looked like a glass statue that was on the verge of disintegrating, there was no indication that there was anything wrong at all. “I am fine.” Although her tone was calm and level and gave no indication that there was anything amiss, there was clearly something wrong with the voice itself. There was an odd mechanical whine to it, as though there was a malfunctioning servo in her throat.</p><p>Buffy pushed herself to her feet. She thought about saying that Illyria quite clearly <i>wasn’t</i> fine, but she didn’t think she needed to. Both of them knew that Illyria was just a short step away from falling apart. If Illyria needed to at least try to pretend that there was nothing wrong, then Buffy wasn’t going to argue. She’d glossed over enough bad situations in her time to know that sometimes things were just too bad to deal with. “Okay then. We’re on the Krenim ship. To the shock of practically no one, they aren’t friendly. They tried to kill me and when that didn’t work out they decided to leave us here. I’d guess this is some sort of holding cell and they’re trying to figure out what they want to do with us.”</p><p>“You’re damaged,” Seven said from across the room. She didn’t even acknowledge Gordo scowling at her. She just looked at Illyria. “The Collective can repair you. We can generate a neuro-electric field which can-“</p><p>“I have no intention of joining the Borg.”</p><p>“Intention is irrelevant. You must comply.”</p><p>“Oh, yeah. That’s the other thing,” Buffy interrupted. “Seven thinks that you’ve gotta go full Borg. Apparently she recognised the language you used to put temporal shielding in Gordo’s head, and she figures the only way that’d happen is if you join the Collective.”</p><p>Illyria frowned. She pinched the bridge of her nose – the movement was so unexpectedly human and vulnerable that Buffy felt obliged to look away. “So many memories,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.</p><p>“Um, what? What’s going on now?”</p><p>Illyria seemed to abruptly realise what she was doing. Her hand dropped and she returned to her standard icy demeanour. “Time is different for me than it is for you. You live in the present. You have vague memories of the past, but they aren’t perfect. You <i>forget</i>.” There was a slight hitch in her voice on the last word. “But I remember everything. The past is as present to me as the present. When time changes it feels as though there is a storm inside my head. Things that had been certain and sure are cast adrift. It takes time for the memories to come back.”</p><p>“Okay,” Buffy said. “So you remember what happened – uh, what should have been going to happen before Kes left the ship?” She frowned, wondering if that made sense. Then she decided that it probably didn’t and neither did pretty much anything else, so she shouldn’t give herself a headache trying to figure it out.</p><p>“Yes. I remember so many things. We’re in the eye of the storm. Things are calm, here and now.”</p><p>“Cool. And is there any chance that any of it is actually relevant or should we go ahead with the jailbreak thing? ‘Cause I’m thinking that we can probably take this ship from the inside and I could really go for some tips about how to do that right about now.”</p><p>Illyria was silent for several seconds. She seemed to be mentally sorting through whatever new memories she had. She cocked her head to one side. “That’s what you said last time.”</p><p>Buffy waited to see if there was going to be an explanation. After a while it became clear that there wasn’t going to be one. “Hey, Gordo, did that make sense to you?”</p><p>Gordo shook her head. “You’ve got me. This whole time thing makes my brain thingy turn to mush.”</p><p>“Seven?”</p><p>“I am uncertain,” Seven said slowly. An expression of something that could only be called horror began to spread across her face. Given that she was normally only slightly more expressive than a statue, the effect was shocking. “However, I have a theory.”</p><p>“I’m <i>really</i> not going to like it, am I?”</p><p>“A Möbius loop,” Illyria said, as though that was an explanation. “The present changes the past changes the present changes the past changes the present changes the-“ Her mouth shut with an audible click as though she had to forcibly stop herself from repeating the loop. “Cause and effect become uncoupled. Paradox.”</p><p>A sneaking suspicion began to dawn. “Oh, no. No no no. That can’t be – no. All of the no.” Buffy took a step back and waved her hands in front of her, as though she could force away what Illyria was saying. “That can’t be right. That can’t be true.”</p><p>“Have you ever wondered why you don’t die?” Illyria said gently.</p><p>“Sure, you can only go to so many funerals without wondering that, but I’m not getting what that has to do with anything. Especially not… what I think you’re saying.”</p><p>“For people who are me and have no idea what’s going on, can <i>someone</i> do some sort of explaining?” Gordo said plaintively.</p><p>“Paradox,” Illyria said again. “We’ve done all of this before. Paradoxes are recursive. You were present – therefore you have to be present. You were there then, so you’re here now. Now is the same as then. You don’t die because time won’t let you die. You have to be here, so you are. The paradox insures itself.”</p><p>Buffy sat down on the floor. Standing seemed like too much right then. “So you’re saying we’ve been through all of this before, and because we did we have to do it again and again and again.” She looked up at Illyria. “That’s what you meant, back at the fair. You said we seem to move so far, but really we aren’t going anywhere. It’s just a loop. It’s all just a loop.”</p>
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<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter Twenty-Four</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This is how it works,” Illyria said. “Two hundred years ago, a Krenim scientist sees that his people are on the verge of being wiped out, and he designs a machine that can bring them back to power in an instant. He builds a ship so he can alter time. He wants his people back, and there’s no better way to do that than by changing the past so that they were never gone in the first place. But he overestimates his abilities.”</p><p>“When time breaks, only a fool or a god will say they know what’s gonna happen,” Buffy muttered under her breath.</p><p>“He was a fool,” Illyria agreed. “Now he changes time again and again and again, hoping to bring back people who lived and died and never existed at all. Meanwhile, across the galaxy, someone feels time breaking.”</p><p>“You,” Seven said. </p><p>“We come, we destroy the ship. But the ship is in a state of temporal flux. Without it, none of the changes to the timeline ever happen at all – and, most importantly, none of the <i>memories</i> of the alterations remain. And so, two hundred years ago, a Krenim scientist builds a machine to put his people back in power. The wheel turns, and the cycle begins again. The present changes the past and the future ceases to exist. All that remains is the loop.”</p><p>Gordo looked confused. “But that sounds like a two century loop. Buffy’s been around a bit longer than that. Why’s she here? I get that a paradox insures itself – I mean, I totally don’t but I can pretend I do – but why does a paradox need someone around who should have been dead for hundreds of years?”</p><p>“That’s a good question.” Buffy had never really been sure why she didn’t age or why death only seemed to be a temporary inconvenience. The general consensus had been some kind of magic, but no one had been able to figure out the exact cause. Unsurprisingly, some aliens from the future had never been considered. She looked up at Illyria. “I’d like an answer to that one.”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Illyria said simply.</p><p>Buffy stared at her. Centuries of her life suddenly seemed like lies. Everything she’d done – and she’d done a <i>lot</i> - no longer felt like accomplishments. She’d thought that she’d been the most successful Slayer of all time, but it turned out that all of that was just so that she could be here and now. Everything that she’d built might as well be dust. She stared at Illyria, and one thought just kept circling in her head.</p><p>When time breaks, only a fool or a god will claim they know what’s happening. Illyria had been a god. She remembered timelines that had never happened at all. Two hundred years ago she’d said that she hadn’t known who was breaking time, but then she’d come out and made a cryptic comment about everything being cyclical. “Illyria,” Buffy said, her voice low and level, “are you lying to me?”</p><p>Illyria crouched down until her face was level with Buffy’s. “Would you believe me if I said no?”</p><p>“Right now?” Buffy shook her head. “I don’t think so.”</p><p>“Your trust or your lack of it is irrelevant,” Seven said. “We are in a temporal loop. The only way that we can get out of this situation is by working together.”</p><p>“Seems like a bit of a switch from being Little Miss Betrayal Borg,” Gordo said drily. </p><p>“I have been wrenched from the Collective once. The idea of that happening in perpetuity is abhorrent.” Although Seven’s voice was as cool as usual, she couldn’t keep her revulsion from her face. “If there is no future then I can never re-join the Borg. I won’t allow that to happen.”</p><p>“She’s right,” Illyria said quietly, her eyes not leaving Buffy. “If we can’t work together then we’re doomed from the start.”</p><p>“We’re already doomed,” Buffy scoffed. She propelled herself upright and started pacing back and forth. “We’re always doomed. It’s what Q said. The last time that time broke – time <i>is</i> broken. There’s no more future. Just eternity in two hundred year chunks. If we blow up the ship then we’ll be right back here having the same conversation.” She rounded on Illyria. “But you know that. You’ve known that for ages now. You knew we were gonna lose and you never said anything. You just kept up this, this <i>lie</i> like we were ever going to actually make a difference. You lied. You lied to me.” </p><p>It wasn’t like she’d never thought that Illyria might have some kind of ulterior motive behind all of this. Buffy had guessed for a while now that Illyria was keeping secrets from her. She hadn’t cared, really, because she hadn’t thought that there was anything Illyria could do that she couldn’t deal with. But this? This felt like a betrayal that was centuries in the making, and she hadn’t seen it coming. She’d thought that she’d known Illyria, at least a little. She’d guessed that Illyria had secrets, but she’d never have thought it was something like this. It hurt more than she’d expected.</p><p>Illyria gave no sign that she knew or cared about what Buffy was feeling. She just looked at her without blinking, her expression unfathomable and enigmatic. She straightened. “We need to find a way out of here.”</p><p>That was it, Buffy thought. She wouldn’t get anything even close to apology. Illyria was more alien than anyone else on this ship. Illyria didn’t even recognise that she’d done something wrong, just like she hadn’t realised that letting a pair of scientists take their <i>child</i> on a Borg fact-finding expedition was wrong.</p><p>Gordo looked from Buffy to Illyria and back again. For a moment she looked like she might say something, but in the end all she said was “There’s a door over there.”</p><p>Buffy looked where the android pointed. There was indeed a door. It didn’t look some high tech prison door or anything like that. In fact, it looked like pretty much every door on <i>Voyager</i>. That meant that, theoretically, Buffy could force it open. She was strong enough for that, unless the door was much heavier than it looked. </p><p>But she didn’t try. Instead she turned to Illyria. “So what do we do, oh Great and Glorious Knower of Things? I’m thinking it isn’t going to be as easy as just walking out of the door. This is your show. What happens next?”</p><p>“Loose change,” Illyria said, as though that was a helpful thing to say.</p><p>“We both know that wasn’t a real answer. I get that you get a kick out of the whole cryptic thingy, but now’s the time for straight answers.”</p><p>“It’s like Q said. There’s still loose change. The thing about time loops is that they only work if you don’t remember each iteration. If you know what the future holds, then you can change it.” Illyria looked at Buffy. “You know that. You’ve fought enough prophecies. But <i>I</i> remember, and because of that what happened doesn’t happen again. The loop isn’t perfect. Things change.”</p><p>Buffy rubbed her head. “I can see why Janeway made it her life’s goal to avoid dealing with temporal science. This sort of thing turns my brain into jelly. Fine. You know what happened last time, but you don’t know what’s going to happen this time. Least, not exactly. But you’ve still gotta have a pretty good idea.”</p><p>“At this point, it seems unlikely that you’ll believe anything I say.”</p><p>“Mhm. You might have a point there.” Buffy glanced at Janeway’s unconscious body. She really hadn’t liked Janeway doubting every little thing she did just because she’d kept a few secrets that didn’t really affect anyone. Now she was on the other side, and she could see why someone might react like that. </p><p>It wasn’t like it was a bad secret, not really. Oh, it made Buffy feel like nothing she’d done in her four hundred year lifetime ever really mattered, but that wasn’t Illyria’s fault. The problem was that Illyria hadn’t told her before now, and that made her think that maybe, just maybe, it <i>was</i> Illyria’s fault after all. She’d blamed Illyria for being whisked away to the other end of the galaxy even though everything had pointed to her having nothing to do with it. She could blame Illyria for this, too.</p><p>“Right.” Buffy rubbed her hands together. “Well, Gordo, you wanna give me a hand forcing that door open? Feeling an overwhelming need to hit someone, and it seems like the only way I’ll get to do that is if we get out of here.” She probably didn’t need Gordo’s help – she could force open <i>Voyager</i>’s doors by herself, and these didn’t look too different. She just wanted someone near her that she could trust.</p><p>Gordo came over. They both put their hands flat on the surface of the door, settled in low stances, and then pulled. Slowly, the door began to slide into the wall. After a few moments there was an audible click, and it seemed to hold in place. There were no sentries outside, and the hallway didn’t seem to be monitored.</p><p>“I was kinda expecting to be rushed by guards,” Gordo said.</p><p>“Indeed,” Seven said. She hadn’t moved from the corner that Gordo had pushed her into. “It seems unlikely that our escape will be easy.”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “I don’t hear a humming, so there’s no force-field. The door was pretty heavy. You pretty much have to be me to open it, and there isn’t really anyone like that around anymore.” She looked back at Illyria. “What d’you think? Some kind of secret trap on the door?”</p><p>Illyria hesitated for a moment before answering. “I am uncertain. We were separated before. I don’t think we’ve been in this room before.”</p><p>“You don’t <i>think</i>?”</p><p>“I have many memories, and I am damaged. Certainty is difficult in this circumstance.”</p><p>“What about you?” Buffy said to Gordo. “You’ve got temporal shielding in your head. If anyone else is gonna know what’s going on, it’d be you.”</p><p>“Me?” Gordo said in surprise. “Most of my memories are little changes about life on an asteroid. Occasionally I’d pop my head above ground and watch space crack open. If I was ever on this ship before I don’t remember it.”</p><p>“The android remembers the timelines that existed before the Krenim altered them,” Illyria explained. “She doesn’t remember previous iterations of the loop.”</p><p>“But I do,” Seven said suddenly. “The language you used for the temporal shielding. I thought that the only way that I could have seen it before was if you become assimilated, but I was wrong. If there is no future beyond this point, then there will never be a time when you join the Collective. I recognised it because I’ve seen it before, in a previous loop.”</p><p>“That seems likely, but my memories aren’t perfect. It seems likely that I would have tried to make someone else who could remember the loops. I don’t remember doing that, at least not yet, but it seems like the most likely explanation.”</p><p>Buffy’s eyes narrowed. That explained why Illyria had dug up Gordo, put her back together again and put some ancient demonic language in her head. If the loops changed because Illyria remembered them and acted differently, then the more people who remembered the better chance there was that they could break the loop once and for all. If she didn’t remember having done it before, then it might be the first time that she’d done it with Gordo, which might explain why she’d never told Buffy that Gordo even existed. Illyria wouldn’t share information like that unless she was sure it had worked. It would also explain why Gordo only remembered the changes to this timeline.</p><p>“Well, whatever,” Gordo said. “Time’s out of joint. Not like that’s news to anyone at this point. We aren’t going to get anything done standing here bickering and giving each other headaches, so we might as well leave, yeah?” </p><p>Without waiting for a reply, Gordo walked out of the door. Two things happened simultaneously.</p><p>Gordo vanished as she crossed the threshold and Illyria <i>screamed</i>. </p><p>It wasn’t a human scream. At least not entirely. Oh, there were elements of a human voice in there, but there was also the screech of tearing metal and broken machinery. Behind it all was the same thunderous sound that Buffy had last heard when she’d been standing on Nikrenna and the sky had split open. Illyria doubled over and wrapped her arms around herself as though she could physically hold herself together. Between the cracks in her skin shone the same crimson light that had appeared when Illyria had nearly died on the shuttle.</p><p>Then Gordo reappeared, moving backwards through the doorway, and Illyria’s scream cut off so suddenly that it didn’t even leave an echo behind. Gordo shook her head as though to clear it. “Huh. That was weird. Didn’t enjoy it.”</p><p>Buffy didn’t hear her. She moved towards Illyria, who was trembling violently as red light sputtered irregularly from between the cracks in her skin. She noticed that Seven was mirroring her. Before Buffy could touch her Illyria reared away, looking at her with wide, startled eyes that looked more like a rabbit stuck in headlights than anything sapient. Seven stood next to Illyria and only then seemed to realise that there wasn’t anything that she could actually do – it wasn’t like Illyria’s condition was something they could treat, and even if they could they didn’t have the means available to do so. Instead, she put one hand on the small of Illyria’s back and gripped her elbow with the other, apparently thinking that she could at least keep her upright if nothing else.</p><p>Buffy, meanwhile, looked down at her hands. She remembered earlier, when she’d been about to touch Illyria when she’d been unconscious and Illyria had jumped away from her so quickly that she hadn’t seemed to move at all. When Illyria had done the same thing when Buffy had tried to guide her away from the main street on Nikrenna when the Krenim had altered time, and again in the sickbay after she’d woken up. She’d done it even before that, when time had changed when Kes had left the ship and Illyria had looked at her with an expression remarkably similar to the one that she was wearing now.</p><p>Buffy wasn’t a tactile person. Not anymore. She’d trained herself not to be because she couldn’t afford to get too close. But Illyria was a constant. The only person who was even a little bit like her. She’d felt safe with Illyria because she was the only other person who would still be around as the centuries passed. But all this time, being close to her had caused Illyria actual pain. She had a paradox centred on her, and temporal problems like that hurt the Old One.</p><p>Hundreds of years of that, and Illyria had never said anything. Not one word.</p>
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<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter Twenty-Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Before Buffy had a chance to say anything, she heard footsteps coming from behind her. Someone was walking down the corridor. Her first impulse was to hide Illyria – any demonstration of weakness at a time like this wasn’t good. Besides, if the Krenim were here to make the room into a shooting gallery again then Illyria was in no condition to dodge whatever strange temporal weapons they used. The problem was that there was nowhere to hide. The room was empty.</p><p>She could try and close the door again, of course, but by the sound of the footsteps whoever was coming was close enough that they’d notice the movement. Besides, they were probably aware that someone had triggered the trap they’d put on the door and had decided to come to gloat. Instead, Buffy crossed her arms and settled her expression into a stony glare. Gordo copied her.</p><p>The footsteps turned out to belong to a young Krenim man. He wasn’t one of the men that had been knocked unconscious earlier. He appeared to be unarmed. His gaze swept across the room. When he saw Illyria he seemed actively taken aback, which made Buffy wonder about what sort of surveillance that Krenim had. Maybe Illyria’s Borg implants were jamming it or something. </p><p>“Did you want something, or did you just come here to gawk?” Buffy said acidly.</p><p>The Krenim started, tearing his eyes away from the Old One. “What are your names?”</p><p>“I’m Buffy. This is Gordo. The Borg babe is Seven of Nine, and the person your ship’s turned into a twitching mess is Illyria. Captain Janeway already introduced herself, but she’s a little indisposed at the moment. And you are?”</p><p>“My name is Obrist. I’m the second in command here.”</p><p>“Oh, I <i>see</i>. You’re Space Chakotay. Your captain’s done something reckless and it’s your job to come in here and smooth it over.”</p><p>“Who’s Chakotay?” Gordo whispered out of the corner of her mouth.</p><p>“<i>Voyager</i>’s first officer.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t the first officer of a spaceship already be Space Chakotay?”</p><p>Buffy scowled. “Why’d you have to pick now to start with the accurate quippage?”</p><p>“Sorry.”</p><p>“I heard the… scream,” Obrist said. “I came to investigate.”</p><p>“Well, you came, you saw, we quipped at you. Now you can scoot along and tell your boss that we’re still stuck here behind your rewinding door thingy.”</p><p>Obrist showed no sign of leaving. “I’d like to talk to you.”</p><p>Buffy spread her arms. “Well, not like we’re going anywhere. You’ve literally got yourself a captive audience here.”</p><p>“Alone,” Obrist clarified.</p><p>“Oh, are we skipping straight to the, ah, ‘interrogation’? ‘Cause if we are then you’ll have to start it here.” Buffy grinned wolfishly. “Unless you want to try and drag me out.”</p><p>“You misunderstand.” Obrist shifted slightly where he stood. “We aren’t torturers. I just want to talk to you. There are some things that I’d like to know. I <i>could</i> talk to you here, but I know how important it is to present a united front. There are some things you won’t say in front of friends that you might say when you’re alone.”</p><p>Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “Is that why you’re here all on your lonesome? Your captain seems like the sort who’d rather be asking questions when he’s backed by a couple of goons with big, big guns. This you trying to play good cop?”</p><p>Obrist straightened. “The captain thinks that you’re a threat to what we’re doing here. He’s right.” His lips twitched into a small smile. “Our doctor is treating people who can attest to that. But that doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with his decision.”</p><p>“Right,” Buffy said slowly. “So your conscience has been sleeping for the past couple of centuries and it decided to wake up because shooting me in cold blood was too much. That sound about right?”</p><p>To her surprise, Obrist actually seemed to mull that over. “More or less.”</p><p>“Oh. Okay then.” Buffy glanced at Illyria. She wasn’t constantly trembling anymore, but her head was drooping as though she couldn’t support its weight and she didn’t really seem to be present. It looked like Seven was the only thing keeping her upright. “So you’ll deactivate the trap you guys put on the door?”</p><p>Seven spoke before Obrist could reply. “I would caution against going with him. Separation will likely lead to failure.”</p><p>Buffy nodded. Illyria had already said that they’d been separated in the last loop, and that obviously hadn’t worked out so well. “What happens if I refuse to play nice?”</p><p>“Right now? Nothing. I leave you. Later someone will come back and they’ll ask their own questions.” </p><p>Buffy recognised a threat when she heard one. Just because Obrist was offering a carrot now didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be a stick later. “And what’s to stop me jumping you the second I get out of the room? Not that I’d do something like that, of course.” Buffy added insincerely.</p><p>“The ship’s computer is monitoring by bio-signature. If anything untoward happens to me, you’ll be transported back here and then the android will be deactivated.”</p><p>Buffy started in surprise. “Gordo? Why her?”</p><p>Gordo pouted. “That’s just droid-ist, that is.”</p><p>“She was made in your likeness. She obviously means something to you. There was also a mention of it having some kind of temporal shielding. We’d like to study it. We would rather not resort to violence, but we will if we have to.”</p><p>Buffy looked at Obrist intently. She believed him. This wasn’t a ship full of soldiers, at least not in the usual sense. There was a world of difference between altering time and shooting someone. She’d worked that out when there’d been a moment of hesitation between Annorax giving the order to kill her and the goons actually firing. </p><p>“Fine. I’ll go with you. But if there’s some sort of funny business then you’d best believe I’ll fight back, even if you’re holding Gordo over my head.”</p><p>Obrist nodded once. “Good.” He stepped aside. “This way.”</p><p>Buffy walked to the threshold of the door and, after a moment’s hesitation, walked through. Nothing happened. Obrist hadn’t been lying about deactivating the trap, at least. She turned and waved. “See you in a bit. Gordo, make sure Seven doesn’t brain anyone else.”</p><p>Gordo saluted sloppily. “Yes sir.”</p><p>“None of that.” She’d always hated that sort of thing. It was why she stayed out of Starfleet most of the time. “Well, Obelisk, where’re we going?”</p><p>“Obrist,” Obrist corrected automatically.</p><p>“That’s what I said.”</p><p>As it turned out, they didn’t have to go far. The room was right next door to the holding cell. It, too, was almost empty. The only furnishings were a table and two chairs, all of which were bolted to the floor. Buffy wondered idly if the whole ship was as Spartan as this. </p><p>Before Buffy could make a joke about that, Obrist sat in one chair and gestured for her to take the other. She sat.</p><p>Obrist leant forward, rested his arm on the table and cupped his face with one hand. “What do you want?”</p><p>“Skipping straight to the big questions. Cool. I like it. Well, to start with, I’d really like a pony. I’ve never had one.”</p><p>Obrist didn’t reply or even crack a smile. He just kept looking at her intently.</p><p>Buffy sighed. “Fine. Basically I’d like it if you guys would stop messing around with time. It isn’t good for the space-time continuum or whatever.”</p><p>“Do you know what we’re doing here?”</p><p>“Did you miss the bit where I said I’d like you to stop messing with time?”</p><p>Obrist waved that away with his free hand. “Do you know <i>why</i> we’re doing it?”</p><p>“Some people can’t let go. Figured that out before I even heard about you guys in particular. There’s only one reason someone would go in for whole-sale time altering.”</p><p>“We were at war with a species called the Rilnar.” There was a slight hesitation in Obrist’s voice on that last word. Two hundred years and he was still reluctant to say their name. That told Buffy pretty much everything that she needed to know about them. “Wasn’t much of a war, really. They figured a way to get around our temporal weapons and then they crushed us like bugs. They made a sport of it. It was like a game to them.”</p><p>“I’ve seen my share of bad guys,” Buffy said. “Believe me about that. I get that you had a bad break, and that you’d do anything to try and fix it. But if you can’t let go then you’ll get eaten up inside. I’ve seen it happen. Something just twists inside of you. You just keep going and going and you’re so eaten up by everything you’ve lost that you don’t even realise that you’ve lost the ability to just stop and <i>rest</i>.”</p><p>Obrist gave her a shrewd look. “Speaking from experience?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged, trying to pretend that the question hadn’t hurt. She was a guarded person – she had to be, no one could have as many secrets as she did and not be guarded. It had been a long time since she’d spoken to anyone about this sort of thing. Ordinarily she probably could have remained clinical, but Illyria’s little revelation had really thrown her and she hadn’t had the space to think that through. As it was, the question took her by surprise. It felt like a sudden knife in her chest. “You’ve been doing this for two hundred years. I’ve been around for almost twice that. You aren’t the only people to deal with loss.”</p><p>“But you’re still trying to get home.”</p><p>Buffy tilted her head to one side. “I thought you didn’t believe us about us being from the Alpha Quadrant.”</p><p>“We pulled in your shuttle. I know you wiped your logs so we couldn’t track it back to your ship, but there’s enough data there to support your story,” Obrist said. “We have no home. In this timeline, the Zahl took it from us. My people are beggars and vagabonds. In my timeline the Rilnar scorched it from orbit. You’re trying to get home. So are we. Ours is just… further away.”</p><p>Buffy sat back in her chair. “Do you authorise expeditions?”</p><p>Obrist seemed thrown by the sudden topic change. “We don’t leave the ship.”</p><p>“Really? No shore leave? I guess B’Elanna was right and an engineer’s day is never done. No wonder your captain wanted me dead as soon as I showed up. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”</p><p>“Who’s Jack?” Obrist asked, nonplussed.</p><p>“Good question. I’ll get back to you on that one.” Sometimes her mind threw up ancient pop-culture references and she didn’t know where they came from. It had been a long time since she’d really gotten into any form of media, and without history buffs like Tom around she found that she tended to forget these things. “It’s not important. I asked ‘cause I think there’s something on one of the asteroids that you might want to have a look at.”</p><p>“What is it?” Obrist asked. “I doubt you’d just give us the location of your ship, and as far as we know there’s nothing else of interest in the belt.”</p><p>That was interesting. It meant that they didn’t know about Narim’s ship. If they didn’t know about that, then they probably didn’t know that Nythea’s colony knew what they were up to. If <i>Voyager</i> could lure the Krenim away, that meant that Marin would be free to get out and take Seven’s prototype temporal shielding with him.</p><p>“I guess you could call it a museum,” Buffy said airily, not letting Obrist know that he’d inadvertently given her some information. “I’d say more, but it would probably work better if it’s a surprise.”</p><p>“You want me to organise an expedition to see something that may or may not be a museum?” Obrist sounded incredulous. “Why would I arrange something that’s almost certainly an ambush?”</p><p>“First, give me a little credit, if I was going to ambush you guys you’d never see it coming. Second, because unless you’re gonna skip straight to the torture then I’m thinking that you guys are trying to negotiate with us. If you want information out of us, then you’ve gotta do a little give and take, you know?” Buffy smiled. “If it makes you feel better, I promise it’s not an ambush.”</p><p>Obrist didn’t say anything for several seconds. Then he scrubbed his eyes tiredly. “You know,” he murmured, “it actually does.”</p><p>“Wait, really?” Buffy said before she could stop herself. “Guess I’m much nicer than I thought I was.”</p><p>“You’re a soldier. The drone would lie in a heartbeat if it would get her off this ship. I don’t think you would.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Buffy said, and was surprised to find that she meant it. “Run it up the flagpole. I guess Captain Shoot First will probably want some more info, but that’s all that you’re gonna get out of me right now.”</p><p>“I’ll talk to the captain.” Obrist didn’t seem bothered by the fact that she was the one who was ending the interrogation rather than him. He stood up. “Come with me.”</p><p>When Buffy walked back into the holding cell, she saw that Janeway was up and pacing around. Illyria was standing unaided, although she still looked like she was a short step away from breaking into thousands of pieces.</p><p>“Hey, ma’am,” Buffy said. “How’s your head?”</p><p>Janeway smiled weakly. “As if all this time travel business wasn’t bad enough, I’ve got to deal with a concussion on top of it.”</p><p>“To be fair, you did decide go on an outing with a bunch of people that you don’t really trust. Waking up with a headache isn’t too bad. Definitely could've been worse. Anyway, I’m guessing you’ve been filled in on, uh, recent developments?”</p><p>“I have.” Janeway nodded, and then promptly looked like she regretted the unnecessary movement. “How did your little chat with the Krenim go?”</p><p>“Interesting. I mean, it just kinda confirmed what we already knew, you know, about them wanting to bring back their people. Apparently they were on the losing side of a war with some aliens called the Rilnar. My impression is that they’re the sort that Cardassians would take as role models. The thing I found interesting was that it seems like not everyone is keen on the captain’s reaction to me being all paradox girl. Big difference between altering time so that civilisations rise and fall and shooting someone.”</p><p>“Do you think it’s possible to convince them to stop? From what I’ve been told, it seems like violence hasn’t worked out. Or isn’t going to work out.”</p><p>“Don’t start with the tenses. Your head really might explode.” Buffy sighed. “Maybe. Obrist seems… <i>tired</i>. They’ve been doing this a long time. Two hundred years of failure is a lot to deal with, but then again there’s always the chance that <i>this</i> will be the time it works.” She turned to look at Gordo. “I want to show him your sculptures.”</p><p>Gordo frowned. “Don’t think this is really the time for an art show.”</p><p>“Sculptures?” Janeway interjected. “What sculptures?”</p><p>“You know how Gordo got marooned on an asteroid for a century or so? Turns out she used the time to pick up sculpting. She made a gallery of my past down there.”</p><p>“I’d love to see that,” Janeway said, “but why do you think that’ll be helpful? These people spend their time altering the past. Why would the history of a girl from across the galaxy be of any interest to them?”</p><p>“Don’t you see? They’re so much about the past that they’ve literally killed the future. They want to get home, but it’s so far away. I want to show them <i>my</i> home, <i>my</i> past. They need to see that it’s possible to move on. I know it’ll probably do nothing at all, but if I can make them think, if I can make just <i>one</i> of them think? It’s gotta be worth it. They’ve got all the time in the world to try and bring back their people, so the only way we can get them to stop is to make them think it’s not worth it. Sometimes what you bring back isn’t worth it.”</p><p>Buffy’s throat was tight and her eyes were hot. She could see that Janeway was going to continue talking and ask her questions. The captain was normally empathetic, but she was also stressed and concussed and knew that Buffy had lifetimes of experience of hiding things and keeping people away. She was going to keep pushing and Buffy was going to snap.</p><p>And then Illyria spoke. Her voice was raspy and hoarse and it sounded like she had rusty cogs in her throat. “There is another option.”</p><p>“Go on,” Buffy said. “I’m all ears.”</p><p>“I can get us out of here. We can escape.”</p>
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<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Chapter Twenty-Six</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This is the plan,” Illyria rasped. Buffy noted that she said ‘<i>the</i> plan’, rather than ‘<i>my</i> plan’. Illyria might be presenting this as an alternative idea, but to her there wasn’t a choice at all. “I get to the engine room and overload the ship’s temporal core. The resulting reaction will lead to the temporal energy being converted into tachyokinetic energy. The energy which would have restored the original timeline will instead be channelled into the reaction.”</p><p>“I’m sure your science checks out and everything, but that idea kinda assumes that we’ll actually be able to leave. I don’t know if you noticed, but last time we tried to escape Gordo got rewound a few seconds and you almost died.”</p><p>“That was then,” Illyria said as though that was just a minor detail. “This is now. I have worked out the phase shift of the door. Overcoming it is trivial.”</p><p>“How?” Seven asked. “We have insufficient equipment.”</p><p>“All that’s required is the right words in the right place at the right time.”</p><p>Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “That sounds like the sort of thing that Willow would say. I don’t know if all this time stuff is making you loopy or something, but you might wanna remember the reason that Willow used to say things like that and, you know, why people don’t say stuff like that anymore.”</p><p>“I feel like I’m missing something here,” Janeway said. “You mentioned this Willow before. You said she was a friend from the twenty-first century. What does she have to do with any of this?”</p><p>“If I’m right, nothing at all. I think Blue’s just confused.”</p><p>“I am not,” Illyria said scornfully. “My language has temporal properties. It works. Here and now, it will work. Willow’s <i>speciality</i> has nothing to do with it.”</p><p>“Will one of you explain what you’re talking about?” Janeway asked. “I’ll even make it an order.”</p><p>“I outrank you, Captain,” Illyria said coolly. “You can’t order me to do anything.”</p><p>That seemed to be the final straw for Janeway. “What? <i>What</i>? How? You left Starfleet to join the Maquis!”</p><p>“I did not. I was on a mission for Starfleet Intelligence. I was instructed to explore anomalous displacement waves in the Badlands. Given the presence of the Maquis in the region, it was considered prudent if I did so undercover. The documentation I gave the Maquis was created by Starfleet. In actual face, I am a commodore.”</p><p>“Damn it, Blue!” Buffy snapped. “I knew you knew about the Caretaker thing. Just chance we got whisked across the galaxy my foot.”</p><p>“You blamed me anyway,” Illyria said mildly. “Whether or not there was a factual basis to your accusations was irrelevant.”</p><p>“As is this entire conversation,” Seven interjected. “There is no reason to delay our escape.”</p><p>Janeway held up a hand. “Hold on. I’d like to know why Starfleet sent a commodore to have a look at displacement waves.”</p><p>“I designed the sensors that detected them in the first place. Given that Starfleet is officially against the Maquis and they are known to hide in the Badlands for protection, it was thought that it would be a good idea if knowledge of the existence of a sensor that could circumvent that protection didn’t spread. There was also a fear that the displacement waves might be the precursor of a Borg invasion, given the technological level required to create them. As one of the Federation’s specialists on the Borg I was the natural choice.”</p><p>“I’m sure Chakotay will be thrilled to know that Tuvok and Seska weren’t the only imposters on his ship,” Janeway said. She sounded dazed, which, Buffy realised, had been the point. Janeway was so blindsided by the fact that Illyria was secretly a commodore that she’d completely forgotten to press about Willow. </p><p>Buffy idly wondered if Illyria was telling the truth, but then she decided that it didn’t really matter. “If we can get back to your plan,” Buffy said. “You mentioned something about tachyokinetic energy back on <i>Voyager</i>. Seemed like you wanted to use it to make a great big bomb or something. If you’re planning on converting whatever energy it would take for the timeline to reset, then how big an explosion are we talking here?”</p><p>“Although I cannot be certain without more data about the exact nature of the Krenim’s alterations, a conservative estimation would suggest a blast radius of about eight thousand light years.”</p><p>“Eight thousand – you want to blow up most of the quadrant!”</p><p>“If I hadn’t been repeatedly interrupted, then I could have finished explaining the plan,” Illyria said tersely. "I do not intend to explode <i>Droste</i> in regular space. I can shift it into a region of subspace, as I did to <i>Voyager</i>. The explosion will happen elsewhere, and the galaxy will be unaffected.”</p><p>“The principles of the plan are sound,” Seven said. “However, I do not believe that you are capable of carrying it out in your current condition.”</p><p>Buffy winced. Unsurprisingly the ex-drone seemed to think tact was irrelevant. “I’m still not keen on a plan that involves a great big explosion.”</p><p>“Since when?” Gordo said. “Lots of your plans involve great big explosions.”</p><p>“Hey! That’s not true! Most of them involve me hitting people. Explosions are really more of an occasional thing.”</p><p>“When was the last time you blew something up? Maybe it’s one of those occasions.”</p><p>Buffy glared at her. “Whose side are you on here?”</p><p>“I’m just saying I’m a simple droid and fire is pretty.”</p><p>“Fine. Whatever.” Buffy turned back to Illyria. “Your plan seems like a last resort. If we break out and start making with the big booms then we’ll be burning our bridges. Literally. We should at least try and convince them that the best thing they can do is pack it in.”</p><p>“I agree with Summers,” Janeway said suddenly. “Diplomacy is always Starfleet’s preferred option.”</p><p>“What makes you think it <i>is</i> an option?”</p><p>“I don’t know, talking to them? Obrist seems like an okay guy. I get the feeling that he’s been doing this so long that he’s forgotten what it’s like to not be doing it. He needs someone to show him a new way of doing things, and I’m <i>good</i> at that.”</p><p>“Not good enough,” Seven said. “The only way the loop continues is if the ship is destroyed and its temporal energy resets the timeline. Given that the loop <i>does</i> continue, the ship must always be destroyed. As destroying the ship is not a necessary condition of the Krenim stopping, logic dictates that they do not and never will stop.”</p><p>“That doesn’t necessarily follow,” Janeway argued. “The ship exists in a state of temporal flux, making it untouchable by conventional weaponry. It’s possible that the ship was destroyed by enemies of the Krenim while they were in the process of powering it down.”</p><p>“Before our arrival, no one in this sector was aware of the Krenim possessing the power to alter time. They possess the technology to avoid the sensors of the species native to this sector. The only reason anyone would know what the Krenim are doing is if we told them, and if we did that then we would also be able to share the details of the loop,” Seven replied. “Past experience tells us that-“</p><p>“Oh shut up,” Buffy said harshly. “All of you, shut up. We can’t do either plan unless we agree, and unless Illyria’s got more secrets hiding up her sleeve then we just don’t have enough information to really make an informed decision. Basically all we can do is take the plunge and hope that this is the time it works out.”</p><p>Buffy realised that that was the same feeling that had been driving the Krenim for the last couple of centuries. Just because things hadn’t worked out yet didn’t mean that it wouldn’t work out the next time. Good times were just around the corner. Of course they were, because if they weren’t then they’d wasted lifetimes and they were too clever to do something like that. When time breaks, only a fool or a god will claim to know what’s going on.</p><p>Well, maybe there was something that she could do about that.</p><p>“Q!” Buffy called. Janeway winced at her suddenly loud voice. Gordo glanced around to see what she was talking about, while both Seven and Illyria looked like they had already worked out what Buffy was trying to do. “C’mon, Q. You’ve gotta be lurking around here somewhere. Do me a favour and show up.”</p><p>There was a flash of light, and suddenly Q was leaning nonchalantly against the wall. When he appeared everyone else other than Buffy froze. Apparently this was going to be a private conversation. “You rang?”</p><p>“You wanna be helpful for once?”</p><p>“Of course!” Q said sardonically. He saluted. “Ready and willing, <i>Sir</i>!”</p><p>“Right,” Buffy said dubiously. “Well, the thing is we’ve got a bit of debate on our hands and unless we get it right then we’ll end up doing the time-warp again. Seeing as you like going on and on about how omnipotent you are and how you’re better than lowly mortals or whatever, I thought you might wanna, you know, actually <i>prove</i> it by settling things?”</p><p>Q gave her a shrewd look. Obviously he knew that she was trying to needle him into helping. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly he was wearing a black toga and seemed to be covered in gold body paint. He struck a pose. “You may approach the Oracle.”</p><p>Buffy rolled her eyes. “Would the Krenim ever stop? I don’t mean stop in the, uh, fatal sense or anything. Just, like, would they wake up one morning and decide that they’d been at this for far too long? What if someone helped ‘em figure it out?”</p><p>“Question too vague. Reply hazy, try again.”</p><p>Buffy shot him a dirty look. “Do you <i>want</i> me to smack you?”</p><p>“Well, what did you expect? Even if some decide to stop, all it takes is one to continue. There will always be people who don’t know how to let go. You remember Danny. Just because he physically survived the Romulan attack on his ship doesn’t mean that he ever really left there. His whole life he existed there, on the bridge, amongst the dying.”</p><p>Buffy’s breath caught in her throat. With some difficulty she managed to swallow. “What if we went back in time? Smacked the Rilnar around a bit so that the Krenim didn’t feel like they were forced to start altering time?”</p><p>“It was a war. People died. You know better than most that people turn their enemies into demons. The Krenim weren’t saints. The Rilnar felt like they were driven to do what they did just so that they could survive.”</p><p>“They burned down the Krenim homeworld. I hear they made a game of hunting Kreim down. You don’t need to go that far just to survive.”</p><p>“You’re talking about Obrist? He grew up on a colony world. It used to belong to the Rilnar before the Krenim took it.” Q looked at Buffy intently. “There’s always two sides to a story like this. You might think that you don’t need to bomb a city just because of a rumour that one of your enemies is in it – but there are those who’d disagree.”</p><p>“That’s not even close to the same-“ Buffy paused and took a deep breath. “Wow. This is getting a lot heavier than I was expecting.”</p><p>“It’s war,” Q said matter-of-factly. “A war that the Krenim have been fighting for centuries. Maybe there’s a diplomatic solution. Maybe there isn’t. It’s up to you to find out.”</p><p>“What happened to you being all-knowing or whatever? What’s the point in lording it over us if you can’t even give me a hint?”</p><p>“I told you. When time breaks, you get a lot of loose change. The universe isn’t nearly as consistent as you think it is. Sometimes the Continuum thinks that it’s best not to get directly involved.”</p><p>“Since when have you cared about what the Continuum thinks? I thought you were all about the rebellion.”</p><p>“Sometimes I’m so responsible I surprise even me. Now, was there anything else you wanted to harangue me about?”</p><p>“Eh, not really. You’ve been helpful, in a way that totally hasn’t been.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Q said drily. He clicked his fingers and vanished in a flash of light. Everyone else unfroze.</p><p>“I’m guessing he showed up and it didn’t go so well,” Janeway said after seeing Buffy’s expression.</p><p>Buffy sighed. “Yeah, pretty much. Basically we’re on our own out here. It’s up to us to screw things up.”</p><p>“What do we do next?” Seven asked.</p><p>“What do you care?” Buffy grumbled tiredly. “You’ve been doing your own thing since we yoinked you out of the Collective.”</p><p>“Lack of unity will only harm our objective. As we do not have a collective, we need a leader. It appears that Commodore Illyria won’t follow the captain, and the captain won’t follow the commodore. I do not think that anyone will follow me. That leaves you.”</p><p>“And me. Don’t forget me,” Gordo added. “I mean, I don’t know what’s going on anymore and kinda really never did, but I’m still here.”</p><p>“I guess we can’t just shamble along randomly mutinying anymore,” Buffy murmured. “Still, it would help if I could actually make up my mind about what I wanna do here.”</p><p>“Then the question is this,” Illyria said. “If you had their technology, would you stop? If you could save them? If you could save any of them?”</p><p>Buffy breathed deeply, held it for a moment and then exhaled loudly. “I don’t know.”</p><p>“How much are you willing to gamble on the answer being yes?”</p><p>Buffy looked at Illyria. She remembered how she’d felt not too long ago, when Illyria had been lying on the floor and seemingly dead to the world. She remembered how she’d felt when she’d heard that Koschei had destroyed a city and killed Gordo just to try and get to her. </p><p>It was quiet. Everyone seemed to be waiting for her response. Even Janeway. She hated the quiet. She was at her best when it was noisy and there things to be done. Noise meant she was alive. Only the dead were quiet. Right then, it was so quiet that it was practically deafening.</p><p>“Fine,” Buffy said eventually. “Jailbreak it is.”</p><p>Illyria moved over and knelt in front of the door. She ran a hand over the wall next to it and appeared to think for a moment before beginning to scratch something into it.</p><p>“What’s she doing?” Janeway asked.</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Hell if I know. I stopped asking that centuries ago. She pretty much always does her own thing.”</p><p>It turned out that she was engraving some kind of symbol. When she was finished it glowed a faint blue. Buffy had never seen it before, but just looking at it made her feel queasy. Even when she looked away it was like she could still see it, as though it had been engraved on her retinas as well as the doorframe. </p><p>“Wouldn’t recommend looking at it if you don’t have to,” Buffy said. “Things like that’ll really do a number on your head, and this whole thing’s bad enough without our brains trickling out of our ears.”</p><p>“But how?” Janeway asked. “How does it do it that? It’s just a language. I can understand how it might work as temporal shielding, but she’s just carving it. It shouldn’t be glowing. It shouldn’t be-”</p><p>“Let’s just call it magic and leave it at that, huh?”</p><p>“Magic,” Janeway said flatly. “Really. That’s what you’re going with here.”</p><p>“It seems very familiar,” Seven said distantly. She hadn’t taken her eyes off it since Illyria had started, and if she was affected by it she didn’t show it. “It is as though I can almost read what it says. As though the words are buried in my memory and they’re close to breaking out.”</p><p>“Again, might wanna look away so that your brain doesn’t melt.”</p><p>“This is the first language,” Illyria said without turning around. “Or as close to it as we can come, in these forms with these senses. Before this language there was nothing but silence. There is no one alive who knows it now. No one but me. Languages derived from it have gone extinct and been forgotten in their turn. When it is spoken, the universe stops to listen.” Illyria’s voice was bitter. “Or it would, if there were anyone still capable of speaking it.”</p><p>“Nevertheless, I still feel as though I am on the verge of being able to read it.”</p><p>“Your feelings are irrelevant.”</p><p>At that, Seven blinked and looked away. “Correct. Memories of previous loops are irrelevant if they are so vague that they cannot be recalled.”</p><p>It was a few minutes before Illyria finished carving symbols all the way around the door. When she was done she took a few steps back and looked at what she’d done as though she was an artist examining her work.</p><p>“So, what happens next?” Buffy prompted.</p><p>In lieu of an answer, Illyria stepped forwards and put her hands on the doorframe. Instantly, the symbols grew brighter. The muscles in Illyria’s neck stood out. She was visibly straining, as though she was trying to shift a mountain with her bare hands. </p><p>In the centre of the doorway it looked as though reality began to peel away, revealing a pulsing blue light. It seemed like the opposite of the crack in the sky that Buffy had seen on Nikrenna when the spatial distortion had been about to hit. The light began to spiderweb through the air, snaking out to envelop Illyria like a cocoon. The light was so blinding that Buffy was forced to look away, and then there was a sound that was almost like a sigh, if it was possible to sigh without lungs.</p><p>Then, suddenly, the light winked out.</p><p>Blearily, Buffy saw Illyria standing ramrod straight. There were blue streaks in her hair and blue patches on her skin, and she was wearing a red catsuit. There were no cracks in her skin. In fact, there was no sign that she had ever been injured at all.</p><p>“It’s done,” Illyria said. Her voice was strong, and there was no hint of a mechanical whine. “It’s time to go.”</p><p>Buffy would have liked to ask Illyria how she was suddenly well again, but she doubted she had the time. Their break-out hadn’t been as subtle as she would have liked. It wouldn’t be long before the Krenim were out searching for them.</p><p>An idea occurred to her. Buffy grinned. “Hey, Blue? Can you look like you did just now?”</p><p>Illyria cocked her head to one side. “I can. Why?”</p><p>“Just do it. I’ve got a plan.”</p><p>There was a moment’s hesitation before Illyria did so. “What now?”</p><p>“Now I’m gonna take a quick nap.” Buffy walked out into the corridor, lay down on her back, folded her hands behind her head and closed her eyes.</p>
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<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Chapter Twenty-Seven</h2></a>
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    <p>It was less than a minute before the Krenim began pouring down the hallway. At least eight of them, by the sound of the footsteps. Buffy didn’t open her eyes, and deliberately kept herself <i>offensively</i> relaxed. </p><p>Stories were important. They’d already heard that she’d taken out a couple of them when they’d had weapons trained on her. They already knew that she had a paradox centred on her. For all intents and purposes, they knew that she was practically destined to beat them. That meant that they were wary of her even before she’d escaped. Now they saw that she’d managed to make her way past the temporal trap they’d left on the door, and rather than make a break for it she had, apparently, decided to go to sleep. Now, the Krenim were nervous <i>and</i> confused.</p><p>Good. Buffy could work with that.</p><p>As they murmured amongst themselves, Buffy yawned theatrically and reached up to rub her eyes as though she really had been asleep. She was careful to move slowly and telegraph her movements so that no one would get jumpy and fire at her. She opened her eyes and peered at them. “Hey there. You might wanna fetch your captain or Obrist.”</p><p>“Get back in the cell,” one of them said.</p><p>Buffy sat up and stretched. “No, I don’t think so.”</p><p>The squad of people with weapon pointed at her obviously didn’t know what to make of that. Generally, when you pointed a weapon at someone and told them to do something, they would do it. There was, of course, an obvious option that they could take, but it was difficult to open fire on someone who was just sitting there.</p><p>It didn’t help that she was smiling at them as though she knew something and they didn’t.</p><p>“Why don’t you find someone with authority, hmm?” Buffy said kindly. “I’m not gonna go anywhere.”</p><p>“We don’t need to get anyone!” One of the Krenim snapped. He wasn’t the same person who had spoken before, which made Buffy suspect that he probably wasn’t the highest ranking person there. “We’re the ones who are armed here, which means that you do what we say or-“ Suddenly he twitched and his hand jumped up to his ear. At first Buffy thought that he’d been distracted by a fly or something like that, but then she remembered that she was on a spaceship. Besides, the Krenim’s eyes were wide and a little wild. Something had happened.</p><p>The expressions of others told her that they didn’t know any more than she did. A few of them shot Buffy suspicious looks, but she was clearly just as baffled as they were. “Are you okay over there?”</p><p>“Fine,” the Krenim muttered. He seemed distracted, and his face was pale. “Fine. I’ve just got to…” Without bothering to finish his sentence, he turned on his heel and left.</p><p>“What was all that about?” Buffy asked.</p><p>“I have no idea,” said the Krenim who had first ordered Buffy to get back in her cell. Judging by the way that the others were looking at him, Buffy guessed that he was the one in charge here. He looked back at the retreating figure of the other Krenim. His body language shifted slightly, becoming softer and suggesting a worry that wasn’t entirely due to Buffy and her friends. Something clicked in Buffy’s head, and she suddenly realised that there was something going on between the two of them. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised – the Krenim couldn’t spend <i>all</i> their time altering history. The crew of the <i>Droste</i> had been alone together for a couple of centuries. Relationships were natural. There’d already been a few on <i>Voyager</i>, and they’d only been travelling for a few years.</p><p>“Uh, do you wanna go find out what just happened?” Buffy asked gently. “I promise I won’t go anywhere, and you’ve got all these weapons pointed at me to make sure I don’t.”</p><p>For a moment, Buffy thought that the Krenim was going to leave, but then he sighed and sagged slightly. “I’ll figure it out later. First I’ve got to figure out what to do with you.”</p><p>“My vote would be getting someone with a bit more authority than you.”</p><p>He looked at Buffy for a long second, and then lowered his weapon. The others didn’t. “What do you want with command?”</p><p>“I mentioned something to Obrist when he stopped by to do the interrogation thing. Wanted to follow up on it. And, uh, I got bored in the cell.”</p><p>The Krenim seemed amused despite himself. Buffy supposed that escaping only to fake a nap on the hallway didn’t <i>only</i> confuse them. It also made her seem more like a person. Which worked in her favour, because Buffy was <i>good</i> at being personable.</p><p>“If you wait in the cell, I’ll see what I can do,” the Krenim said.</p><p>Gordo cleared her throat. “Um, is there a reason that the rest of us aren’t rushing out and doing the attacking thing?”</p><p>“We’re making with the negotiations.”</p><p>“Right. Right. Why?”</p><p>“Because we don’t want to do the attacking thing.”</p><p>Gordo scratched her head. “That seems like circular logic.”</p><p>“Just follow my lead, ‘kay?”</p><p>“Whatever. You’re the boss.”</p><p>Buffy levered herself to her feet, making sure to not make any sudden moves. “I’m going to stand in the cell. Just so you know, if you start doing some sort of shady time stuff, I’ll know, and it’ll go badly for you.”</p><p>The Krenim absently made a scooting movement with one hand instead of answering. Buffy glowered at him briefly before walking back into the cell.</p><p>“Auflost to Obrist,” the Krenim, Auflost, said.</p><p>The reply was almost immediate, and didn’t seem to come from anywhere in particular. Buffy wondered idly how the Krenim comm system worked. “Obrist here.”</p><p>“She wants to talk to you.” Auflost didn’t bother to specify who ‘she’ was, but then, he didn’t really need to. “She’s got a flair for theatrics, this one. She broke out and then decide to make a show of taking a nap just outside the holding cell.”</p><p>“She hasn’t hurt anyone?”</p><p>“No. Jirac had a bit of a turn, but I don’t see how she could have had anything to do with it. She’s spent most of her time lying down and very carefully not threatening anyone.” Buffy grinned and waggled her fingers at him.</p><p>“Good. I’ll be there in a moment.”</p><p>“So,” Buffy said airily as they waited, “are you, like, the security guy? Wouldn’t have thought that there’d be much call for one around here. Aren’t you supposed to be impregnable or something?”</p><p>Auflost was clever enough to recognise a fishing attempt when he heard one, so he only responded to Buffy’s first question. “I’m a scientist. We all are.”</p><p>“I appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to be guard dogs.”</p><p>“At your service,” Auflost replied wryly.</p><p>Before Buffy had a chance to ask exactly what had happened with the other Krenim – Jirac? – she heard footsteps coming down the corridor and Obrist walked into view. He looked tired. Buffy assumed he’d been busy arguing with Annorax. “Is there any particular reason you decided to go for the quadrant’s most theatrical escape attempt?”</p><p>“Like I was just saying, I got bored. You’ve got, like, no furniture in there. Would hiring an interior decorator kill you?”</p><p>“Conceivably, given that we’d have to reveal our existence to someone in this sector to do that,” Obrist replied. “But I don’t really think your theatrics had anything to do with you being bored. You were trying to make a point.”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “You’ve got me there.”</p><p>“What was it? Because if you’re trying to tell us that you’re dangerous, then let me tell you that we <i>know</i>.”</p><p>“You can’t stop me,” Buffy said simply. “You can’t lock me up. You can’t even slow me down. If I wanted to take this ship then there’s nothing that you can do. You know that – I’ve done it before. So, if you’re asking me if I’ve got a message for you, then it’s this: I don’t want to hurt you. I want you to stop with the time stuff, sure, but if I can do it without hurting any of you then I will. I know you’ve all lost people. I get that. Believe me.” Her voice was rough and ragged. “But this has to end.”</p><p>“What do we do, then?” Obrist clasped his hands behind his back. “What would we do next? Temporal science is outlawed in this sector, and at the moment the Krenim are little more than scroungers. Do you think that we should set up some out-of-the-way planet somewhere and take up a life of begging and thieving? You want to get back to your quadrant. How would you react if someone showed up and told you that you had to stop?”</p><p>“Not well,” Buffy admitted, “but the thing is that you’ve killed the future. You’re wondering about what you’ll do next, but there <i>is</i> no next. We just go round and round.”  </p><p>“We can fix it, with enough time. It’s what we do. We’ve come so far, I can’t just-“</p><p>“I can hear them,” Seven said suddenly. Although her voice was barely louder than a whisper, it cut across Obrist like a sword. While Seven’s tone was normally neutral and cold when it wasn’t actively scornful, there was a note of fervency to it now. Everyone was instantly on their guard.</p><p>Gordo looked around. “Who are you hearing, exactly?”</p><p>“The Collective. They’re calling to me. Calling me home. There has to be a cube in the vicinity.” Seven shut her eyes, and she tilted her head to one side as though she was listening for something.</p><p>“There isn’t,” Obrist said firmly. “We’d know about it if there was.”</p><p>“Every ship emits a resonance frequency to guide drones who become separated from the Collective. I can hear them. They’re so close, now.” Seven’s eyes snapped open. “Lower your shields and surrender your ship. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.”</p><p>As if on cue, a pair of Borg drones materialised on either side of Seven. There wasn’t any of the usual indications of Borg transporters. There was no swirl of green energy. Instead, they seemed to fade into existence, starting out as transparent ghosts before rapidly becoming solid.</p><p>Buffy didn’t need to see Illyria flinch to know that something was wrong.</p><p>Auflost and the others opened fire on the drones. One of them was hit before its shields could adapt, and it dissolved in a spray of particles that dissipated in the air. The other had already reconfigured its personal shield and strode towards the gunners, ignoring everyone else. “Resistance is futile. We have adapted to your weapons. Surrender and be assimilated.”</p><p>“Hold your fire!” Buffy shouted. “I’ve got this.”</p><p>Without waiting for a response, Buffy leapt into the air and hammered both her feet into the Borg’s chest. It would have knocked down a Klingon, but the drone just staggered slightly before setting its sights on her. Buffy stepped to the side and punched the drone’s artificial eye with one hand while she pulled out one of its ocular cables with her other.</p><p>Half-blind, the drone struggled to keep her in view as Buffy kept shifting into its blind spot. This was an assimilation drone – if it got its hands on her, it wouldn’t matter if it was blind. There wasn’t a lot she could do once it started pumping nanobots into her.</p><p>The drone lashed out blindly. Buffy ducked under the wild swing and grabbed its arm before stepping in and slamming her shoulder into its torso. Off-balance, the drone staggered again. Buffy pressed her advantage and kicked the drones knee. Her Slayer strength was enough to damage the joint, and the drone buckled.</p><p>However, with its free hand it caught Buffy’s shoulder to support herself. Buffy heard a hissing sound. She tried to throw herself backwards as assimilations tubules slid out of its wrist, but it had a strong grip on her shoulder so she only managed to spin in place.</p><p>Then a hand caught the tubules and yanked them out. “Assimilate <i>this</i>!” Gordo said brightly, as she punched the drone in the throat. Buffy took the opportunity to grab the Borg’s hand and bend it back. She could hear machinery whining, but this drone hadn’t been designed to survive getting into melee with a Slayer. There was an audible screech as it began to tear, and then Buffy was free.</p><p>The drone swiped at Gordo, but the android dodged easily and let loose a flurry of blows. She didn’t seem bothered that they didn’t accomplish all that much. Buffy stepped behind it and grabbed the drone’s neck. She placed one foot on its back and hauled backwards. There was an audible snap as its spine broke.</p><p>The drone collapsed. “Warning. This unit is damaged.” Buffy crouched down and began pulling out every piece of technology she could find and smashing everything else. “Repairs in progress. Standby. Assimilation will continue at a-” Buffy pulled out some sort of wiring that looked like it was at least partially made out of organic tissue, and then the drone went silent.</p><p>Buffy straightened and rubbed her hands on her uniform. “Right then. Now that that’s dealt with, would someone mind telling me why that just happened? Anyone? Anyone? Seven?”</p><p>“I am uncertain,” Seven said. The intensity had left her voice – now she just seemed lost. “I heard the Collective calling me. Now I do not. I am alone.”</p><p>“How did the drones get past our shields?” Obrist said. </p><p>“They did not,” Illyria said. “The drones did not travel through space.”</p><p>Buffy frowned. “I know the Borg have some sort of time machine thingy they can do, but they seem like they’re more about the overwhelming force. Why’d they send just two drones? And even if they did do the time travel thing, what time did they send them from? I thought the Borg didn’t even know you guys existed.” She gestured at the Krenim.</p><p>“You misunderstand. The Borg did not intend to arrive here. They were transported here not by technology, but by the breaking of time. The future no longer exists, and the loop has gone on long enough that the fabric of space-time has been damaged. The past alters the present – and now it is crashing into it. I warned you. Someone is breaking time. They have succeeded.”</p>
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<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Chapter Twenty-Eight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“That doesn’t make sense,” Obrist protested. “You can’t wear out time by removing things from history. That would be like me deciding to walk down the corridor, change my mind and then somehow that damages the corridor. That’s just not how these things work. Altering history alters history, it doesn’t change time itself.”</p><p>Buffy nudged the dead drone with her foot. “This guy bets you a handful of gold-pressed latinum that you’re wrong.”</p><p>“Just because I don’t know how those drones got here doesn’t mean that I have to accept the first explanation that comes along. I don’t know how you got past the temporal trap on the door yet, either.” Obrist jabbed a finger at Illyria. “I don’t even know <i>what</i> you are. We figured out what Buffy was from the sensor readings we took of your shuttle, but we’re still analysing the data we picked up from you.”</p><p>“I am Illyria. God-King of the Primordium. Shaper of Things. Your doubt weighs less than sunlight. Time was my plaything before your world was formed. When time breaks, I know where the pieces go.”</p><p>“Yes, and I’m sure that would be much more impressive if I thought that it was even a little bit true.” Obrist ran his hand through his hair. “Look. We’ve been at this for centuries. More than that, if you count the loops. When we alter the timeline, we might not know everything that’ll happen but we know more than anyone else. That includes you, by the way, God-Thing of Shapes.”</p><p>Gordo giggled. “Oh, very nice!”</p><p>“Your doubt will be your doom,” Illyria stated baldly. “It’s not too late to fix things. If you can see past your pride then there’s still time to get out of this alive.”</p><p>“I’ve barely been speaking to you for a minute and I can already tell that you’re the prideful one here.”</p><p>“Okay, we <i>really</i> need to stop with the bickerage here,” Buffy said. “Obviously stuff is really wiggy if drones are just appearing out of nowhere, but we aren’t going to be doing anything about if we just stand around here arguing. If you’re worried about what you’ll do once you stop doing all this time-altering stuff, I’m pretty sure we can find room for you on <i>Voyager</i>. We can drop you off on some nice planet somewhere once we get out of this sector and you can move on with your lives.”</p><p>“The Federation makes a policy of settling refugees. We’ll help you,” Janeway added. “The world you had is gone, and I’m sorry about that, but that doesn’t give you the right to destroy countless others trying to get it back.”</p><p>“But we can do it, we have the technology, we can-“</p><p>“Jirac to Auflost. Are you there?”</p><p>Auflost’s entire demeanour changed. He had been on alert after the drones had appeared, ready to leap into action, but suddenly the tension left him and a tender expression appeared on his face. “I’m here. What do you need?”</p><p>“Do you remember my sister?”</p><p>Auflost froze. “Are – are you sure this is the time to be talking about this? I’m still dealing with the prisoners.”</p><p>“I heard her. Just now. It wasn’t… wasn’t like the other times. It wasn’t just in my head, you know, wasn’t just a flashback? I know we had to leave her behind, I <i>know</i> that, but I heard her. I’d almost – you know, I’d almost forgotten what she sounded like? She was calling to me, like she did when we were children. I heard her voice.”</p><p>There was a long moment of silence, and then Illyria spoke. “I told you. The past is crashing into the present. The drones were just the beginning. There will be more.”</p><p>“Listen,” Buffy said, “I know you don’t really have any reason to trust us, and if I were you I’d definitely be totally doing the doubting, but if we don’t come up with <i>a</i> solution then there’ll be big badness and…” Buffy trailed off as something occurred to her. If she was being honest with herself, it was something that had been just on the edge of her consciousness for a while now, but she’d been ignoring it so thoroughly that it might as well not have been there at all. But now, hearing about Jirac and his sister and seeing Auflost’s expression when Jirac had said that this wasn’t like the other times, that it wasn’t a flashback, it crashed into her like a tidal wave. </p><p>Slowly, she turned to face Illyria. “When you say there’ll be more, what exactly are you talking about here?”</p><p>“The past is crashing into the present,” Illyria repeated levelly. Her voice was cool and calm as though she was merely commenting on the weather, as though this sort of thing happened every day and none of this was <i>important</i>. Paradoxically, the coolness of Illyria’s voice lit a fire beneath Buffy’s skin. She felt agitated, on edge. Everything seemed quiet. Even the hum of the engines sounded muffled and far away. It felt like a small eternity before Illyria spoke again. Buffy bounced on the balls of her feet. She wanted to hit something – preferably the universe, but she’d settle for whatever was closest. “Things that were dead and gone will come back again. The barriers between times will break and there will be nothing chaos.”</p><p>“So you’re saying that it’ll come back again. That it’ll <i>all</i> come back again,” Buffy said. She could taste bile in her throat. <i>One seems to move so far, and yet in reality one gets nowhere.</i> “It’ll all come back. I can’t do that. Not again.”</p><p>There was a volcano in the pit of her stomach. She slipped her foot under the Borg drone and with a swift jerk she kicked it up into the air so hard that it crashed into the ceiling. As it came back down she spun and kicked it again, sending it flying across the room to slam into the opposite wall like a ragdoll. The rational part of her knew that she shouldn’t have done it – now wasn’t the time to scare people by manhandling a Borg corpse as though it weighed nothing – but she didn’t care. There was fire in her veins, and her mind was stuck in a past that she’d thought she’d never have to live again, a past that she’d worked and worked to move on from. A past that, apparently, wasn’t nearly as gone as she’d thought it was.</p><p>Buffy felt a hand on her shoulder. Her instinctive reaction was to shrug it off and push it away. In fact, she was part way through doing just that without any conscious thought when she caught herself. She couldn’t push people away. That sort of thing had gotten her into trouble before. Sure, it was easier to keep people at arm’s length, literally, but sometimes she couldn’t afford to do that. Sometimes she needed help. </p><p>It had been a long, long time since the fate of the world had been on her shoulders alone. Maybe, if those times were coming back, it didn’t have to be like that again.</p><p>She turned her head to see Janeway standing beside her. She didn’t remove her hand. Buffy knew that the captain was a tactile person, unlike her. She’d joked with Tom and B’Elanna and Harry about it. Janeway touched and tapped and all but draped herself over people, but in that moment Buffy could see the gulf between a commander and the people she commanded. While Buffy habitually widened that gap to keep herself strong and safe and cold, Janeway tried to reach out. No wonder she’d been so paranoid about Buffy. She’d reached out to find a wall of secrets and lies.</p><p>The fire inside her died so suddenly that it might never have been there at all, leaving her feeling cold and hollow. She realised that she was trembling a little. She took a deep breath and willed herself to keep still.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Janeway asked, in a tone of voice which suggested that she wouldn’t take yes for an answer.</p><p>The words tripped past her lips without any real thought on her part. “Honestly? No, not really. I mean, usually I’m better than this. I’m a fighter. It’s, like, literally what I’m for. But sometimes it’s just a lot, you know? I’ve been around a long time, and if some of the stuff I’ve dealt with starts coming back then things are going to be bad. Like, you might think that sudden Borg is pretty bad, but they are total pushovers compared to some of the things in my past. I don’t want to do that again. It was bad enough the first time.”</p><p>“You won’t have to,” Janeway replied. Buffy could tell wishful insincerity when she heard it, but she appreciated the sentiment. “We’ll solve it before it gets as far as that.”</p><p>Behind her, someone cleared their throats. “Ahem. Hypothetically, if this was the problem that you’re making it out to be, then how would we solve it?” Auflost asked.</p><p>Obrist rounded on him. “What? You can’t seriously believe them! You’re a scientist, you <i>know</i> that there’s no factual basis for anything that they’re saying.”</p><p>“No basis that we know of,” Auflost said reasonably. “These people are from another quadrant, and they’ve spent a couple of centuries analysing the data from our temporal alterations. We don’t know what they know. You said it yourself – we don’t even know what they <i>are</i>.”</p><p>“That doesn’t mean that we just have to blindly accept what they’re saying. This is an isolated incident. We can take the data and draw our own conclusions.”</p><p>“You don’t have the time for that,” Illyria said. “By the time you analyse the data, it’ll be too late.”</p><p>“It’s also not an isolated incident,” Auflost added, his voice quiet but intense.</p><p>“Time is changing,” Seven said. “We’ll change with it.” She turned to face Illyria. “That’s what you were talking about on the shuttle. About how you died. Time was your plaything, and you played with it. Then time changed.”</p><p>Illyria nodded.</p><p>“I thought you were murdered,” Buffy said, her mouth moving on autopilot. “That’s the story I heard, at least. Some rivals did the backstabbing thing.”</p><p>She suddenly remembered what Q had said, about the last time that time had broken. Once Illyria had told her about the loop, Buffy had thought that <i>this</i> was the time it was breaking, that the loop had broken time. But as bad as that was, it was nothing like the sort of thing that Illyria was talking about. No wonder the Continuum were getting involved. The sort of apocalypse that could kill off the Old Ones would make short work of them.</p><p>Illyria’s face twisted into a sneer to show what she thought of that. “How many would rush to claim credit for your death, if you died?”</p><p>“Fair enough,” Buffy said with a shrug. “I guess that’s why you said we’re gonna lose, huh? You didn’t solve it before and time did the whole changey-breaky thing and you made with the dying. You think that’s gonna happen again.”</p><p>“Time changed, and we were too slow to stop it. Some of us ran, slipping through the cracks between the worlds. Others tried to make things that would keep them together, to keep themselves perfect and whole. Most of us simply died.” Illyria’s mouth thinned. “I don’t want it to happen again. I’m not afraid of death. I know I’ve died over and over and over again, just to get this far. I don’t want the cataclysm to happen again, but every time I try to stop it I fail.”</p><p>Buffy turned to the Krenim. “You’ve gotta help us.”</p><p>Obrist crossed his arms. “Why?” He didn’t, at least at the moment, sound like he was completely disregarding the idea. He’d been smart enough to get a solid read on Buffy during her interrogation earlier, and she was willing to bet that he knew exactly what sort of feeling would drive someone to kick a corpse across a room. Sure, he didn’t trust them and he’d had centuries to develop his mastery of temporal science, but equally he could tell that <i>something</i> was wrong and, conveniently, here were a group of people who claimed to know what it was. At the very least, he’d worked out that Buffy was a bad liar.</p><p>“Well, Blue here isn’t exactly what we call a people person. Given that her plan for solving this thing is to turn your ship into a great big bomb, I’m thinking that the last few times we went through this you guys were all with the resistance and she was all with the calling it futile and so things didn’t really work out. I know that us telling you that you’ve gotta let go is, like, really not the sort of thing you want to hear right now, but I’m pretty sure that the only way we’re going to solve this thing is if we work together.”</p><p>“You want to turn the ship into a bomb?” Obrist asked incredulously.</p><p>“Okay, I see how that’s the thing that you took away from that, but if you could take away the message about peace and cooperation or something as well then that would be great.” Buffy sighed. “Right. How about this. You want to get your world, back, yeah? But you know it’s been two hundred years. Even if you got it back right now, everyone that you would be getting it back <i>for</i> would’ve been dead for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, Jirac’s not the only one who’s got a sister that he’d like to see again, but they are <i>gone</i>. Even if you get them back, they’ll still be gone, and there won’t be a place for you in that world. You’ve gotta know that. You can’t just be all survivor’s guilt and sunk cost and I don’t even know what else. I get what you’re doing, I do, but it’s got to stop.”</p><p>Obrist opened his mouth. Shut it again. “I had a brother. I used to celebrate the day of his birth, every year. I used to celebrate everyone’s. Then I woke up one day and realised that it had been a hundred years. A hundred years celebrating the lives of ghosts,” he said eventually in a distant tone.</p><p>Buffy nodded once, sharply. “I learned to draw. I don’t have photographs, images. That sort of thing didn’t survive. There was a time when we burned those things to keep warm. But that’s not the point. My mom was really into art, so I spent, like, two years learning how to draw once, when I had the time. I drew them. It made me feel closer to her. To them. Like they were real, you know, not just shadows in my head.” She gestured at Gordo. “She was shut away in an asteroid for a century, and she spent that time making sculptures of practically everyone I’ve ever met. That’s what I wanted to show you, before. Let you see a history that’s really set in stone. I miss them. Of course I do. But I can’t bring them back. I’ve seen what happens when you try.”</p><p>For a moment, it looked like Obrist was going to object, that he was going to say that he <i>could</i> do it, that that was the entire point of the ship, but then he sagged. “Fine. What do you need?”</p><p>Before Buffy had a chance to answer, the ship jumped and juddered as though something had hit it. She frowned. “Is someone firing on us?”</p><p>“Obrist to the bridge. What’s going on?”</p><p>Buffy turned to the others. “What’s the betting? Borg cube? Warbird? Giant tentacled space monster?”</p><p>“A ship just appeared out of thin air, sir, and started firing on us,” came the reply to Obrist. “It’s – it’s the Rilnar, sir.”</p>
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<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Chapter Twenty-Nine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’ve got to get to the bridge,” Obrist said. “I’ve… we’ve got to deal with…” Distracted by the return of the species that had scorched his planet from orbit, Obrist turned to go without even finishing what he was saying.</p><p>Buffy moved forward and put a hand on his arm before quickly stepping back again to make sure that no one thought she was doing anything violent. “What do you think you can do about them?”</p><p>It was, she knew, a harsh question. She didn’t need to see Obrist recoil to know that. But the Rilnar had beaten the Krenim before. They’d beaten them so thoroughly that they’d had to change history just to survive. If they started fighting again then there was every chance that they’d lose again – if not to the Rilnar, then to time breaking.</p><p>“Listen,” Buffy said, “trying to do the same thing over and over again is madness. Or stupidity. Or stupid madness. I don’t actually remember how the saying goes. The point is that it’s not of the good. We’ve got a chance to make things right here, and if we start getting into a battle with the Rilnar then there isn’t going to be enough time to deal with the real problem.”</p><p>Obrist’s hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. “I can’t let them… I can’t,” Obrist said. He didn’t need to explain what he meant. The tension in his voice did it for him. His lips twitched into a bitter imitation of a smile. “It was bad enough the first time.”</p><p>“Then help us,” Buffy said simply. “Help us, and it won’t happen again. It’ll all be over. After two hundred years, it’ll be over.”</p><p>“Some peace sounds like a good idea right now, sir,” Auflost murmured.</p><p>“You’re with them?” Obrist said. He didn’t sound incredulous. He didn't even sound angry. He just sounded <i>tired</i>, exhausted down to his bones. Buffy knew that feeling. It came when after fighting for so long and losing so much that you lost even the ability to stop and rest.</p><p>“If it will help Jirac? Yes. In a heartbeat. Yes.”</p><p>Obrist took a deep, ragged breath. He was so tense that he was almost rigid. He braided his fingers together and stretched up above his head so that his shoulders popped. He rolled his neck. “Fine. If we’re going to stop them – stop all of this – then what do we have to do?”</p><p>Buffy fought down the urge to grin. Finally she felt like she was getting somewhere. “First, we have to worry about the fact that a few of your security people have snuck away and about half of the rest of them look like they’re thinking about making a break for it.” Eight Krenim had shown up when she’d broken out. Obrist had been the ninth. Now there were five, and two of them looked like they weren’t really sure that they should still be there. “I guess not everyone wants in on your mutiny.”</p><p>Obrist turned around. “Kya. Verswandi. I won’t order you to follow me. I know it goes against everything we’ve been doing, and-“</p><p>“Oh, get a grip you two,” Auflost snapped. “If you can’t tell that everything’s gone sideways then you shouldn’t have turned up for duty this morning. You can either do your jobs and make sure things start running smoothly, or you can get out.”</p><p>“Yes, thank you, Auflost,” Obrist said drily. “Which is it to be? I won’t hold it against you if you want to leave.”</p><p>One of the Krenim cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure that’s a lie, sir, and at this point the Rilnar scare me less than Auflost does.”</p><p>Auflost grinned and clapped his hands together. “Right then. Verswandi? What about you?”</p><p>Verswandi shrugged. “You’ve been our boss for a couple of centuries now. Figure it’s not worth getting on your bad side now. Not when Jirac’s on the line.”</p><p>Auflost's grin slipped slightly. “Good. Now all we have to do is deal with the deserters.”</p><p>“Technically that would be us,” Obrist pointed out. “The others are just following-“</p><p>“I need to get to your engine,” Illyria interrupted. What little patience she had had clearly run out. “If you can get me there I can take care of the rest.”</p><p>For a moment it looked like Obrist was going to ask a question, but instead he simply nodded sharply. “Fine. We can do that.”</p><p>“Where are your environmental controls?” Buffy asked. “Half of you have skedaddled to tell the captain about your little mutiny, which means they’re going to try to stop us. Fighting on a ship like this always comes down to who can hold the environmental controls.”</p><p>Obrist seemed taken aback by that. Buffy supposed it shouldn’t have been a surprise – there was a big difference between deciding to mutiny and actually facing the possible consequences of doing so. The Krenim had been living on the same ship for centuries. The idea that their captain and their friends might mess around with their life support wouldn’t even occur to them.</p><p>She’d like to think that it wouldn’t occur to Annorax, either, but someone who would order scientists to shoot an unarmed prisoner just to test a theory almost certainly would. The best she could hope for was that they could get there first, or that whoever he sent disobeyed.</p><p>“They wouldn’t do that,” Obrist said. Although his tone suggested he was certain, his expression told Buffy that he was anything but. “Krenim don’t kill Krenim.”</p><p>“He doesn’t need to. If they drop the oxygen levels we’ll pass out and he can bundle us in a cell or whatever.” Of course, neither Gordo nor Illyria needed to breathe, but she didn’t think that they’d be able to make their way through the ship all by themselves.</p><p>Something Illyria had said echoed in her head. <i>I know I’ve died over and over and over again, just to get this far.</i> But she couldn’t think about that. Just this once, everyone would live.</p><p>“It’s just across from Engineering,” Auflost answered. “It’s not far from here.”</p><p>“Well, we’d best go before they figure out what we’re after.”</p><p>They left.</p><p>The most eventful thing to happen was the decision to avoid the Krenim equivalent of the turbolifts, in case Annorax decided to cut power from them. The quiet made Buffy uncomfortable. She’d expected Annorax to have thrown some people at them by now, if only to slow them down. It could be that he simply didn’t have enough people to stop them – Buffy and Gordo had knocked out four of them earlier, and five of them had defected just now. How many people could there be on a ship crewed by survivors of a catastrophic war?</p><p>It could be that, but going by how on edge Obrist and the others were, Buffy doubted it. They’d expected to find more resistance too. Which meant that there was really only one other option.</p><p>A trap. </p><p>“So, what d’you think Anorak will do?” Buffy asked. “In terms of stopping us from doing anything that we want to do, I mean.”</p><p>“Normally I’d guess some sort of temporal trap, but you seemed to get past the last one without breaking a sweat,” Obrist replied. “Failing that, probably standard force fields and people with temporal weapons.”</p><p>“Mmm. Is there only one way into engineering or environmental controls? Really rather not get funnelled into a kill zone.”</p><p>“Control only has one entrance. There are a couple for engineering, but we’d have to split up if we wanted to get to more than one at a time. It’s designed to shut down certain areas of the ship in the event of a catastrophic failure.”</p><p>“Cool, cool. So basically we’ve got to rush in blindly and hope we outfight whatever your captain’s thought up.” Which was far from impossible. The Krenim weren’t great soldiers. </p><p>“I doubt the Krenim will be an issue,” Illyria commented.</p><p>Buffy narrowed her eyes. “That sounds like you think we’ll win, but normally you’re so doom and gloom-y that you basically have your own thundercloud with you. What’s the what?”</p><p>“There was a temporal incursion on board four and half minutes ago. There was a brief gunfight. I registered several shots from Krenim temporal weapons. The battle was short, and ended with temporal shielding being erected around the area. If I had to guess, the Krenim lost, but managed to contain the threat before being destroyed.”</p><p>“How do you know-“ Auflost began before cutting himself off. “Right. God-Thing of Shapes.”</p><p>“I’m so glad that name’s sticking,” Gordo said happily.</p><p>Buffy turned to Seven. “D’you think it’s the Borg again? Drones figuring out temporal science could be super bad.”</p><p>“I don’t sense anything,” Seven replied, “but I’m not sure if that’s significant. I am no longer part of the Collective. In theory, unless I am caught in a temporal anomaly, I shouldn’t register any Borg activity.”</p><p>“Great. So there’s some sort of bad stuff holed up in the exact place that we want to get to.” Buffy shrugged. “Oh well. Here’s hoping it’s some sort of tentacle monster thing. Could really go for a nice fight right about now.”</p><p>“I realise I may regret asking this,” Janeway said, “but why do you keep bringing up tentacle monsters?”</p><p>Buffy grinned. “The universe’s going to hell in handbasket. Why wouldn’t there be tentacle monsters?”</p><p>“Of course.” Janeway nodded solemnly. “I don’t know what I expected.”</p><p>“Can you bypass the temporal shield?” Illyria asked.</p><p>Obrist nodded. “Sure. Unless I’ve been locked out, that is, but by the sound of things the captain’s probably too busy to have done that.”</p><p>“That, or he’s hoping that we get eaten by whatever took out your guys in engineering,” Gordo added.</p><p>“Thanks for that,” Buffy said acidly. </p><p>As Obrist moved past her, pried a panel off of the wall and started doing something highly technical, Buffy looked at Illyria and raised a quizzical eyebrow. She was trying to ask the Old One why she couldn’t get them past the shield in the same way that she’d gotten them past the trap on the cell without actually coming right out and saying it. Even if the Krenim were allies for the moment, she didn’t think it was a good idea if they knew everything Illyria could do. It was better that they focus on her, instead of the person who looked like she was just a short step away from breaking like glass.</p><p>Buffy’s eyes widened. That was just it. Illyria only <i>looked</i> like she was about to break like glass. She’d seemed to recover right after the light show where she broke past the temporal trap. Buffy had figured that Illyria had just pulled the power from the trap into herself as though she was some sort high-tech time vampire. After all, she’d seen witches pull magic from other people all the time. What Illyria had done hadn’t looked too different.</p><p>But then time had broken. Illyria had <i>said</i> that the Krenim had been messing with time for so long that they’d essentially broken it, but back when Illyria had explained the spatial distortion she’d said that there was no way of knowing the exact link between the origin of the distortion and the source of the paradox that caused it. At least, there was no way of knowing if you were anything short of a god.</p><p>And there was Illyria, only looking like she was short step from cracking into a thousand pieces because Buffy had <i>asked</i> her to. Because she’d wanted to keep the Old One safe, and the best way she knew to do that was to make her look as far from a threat as possible. Illyria, who seemed mere minutes away from getting everything she wanted. After the first encounter with the Krenim, Buffy had thought that Illyria wanted their technology. She’d convinced Buffy that she didn’t, but now Buffy wasn’t so sure.</p><p>Illyria looked back at her coolly, one eye a kaleidoscope of cracked flesh. If she understood the question in Buffy’s body language, she definitely wasn’t answering it.</p><p>“Hey, Blue? Before we go rushing into battle or whatever, can I have a word with-“</p><p>“Got it!” Obrist said triumphantly. There was a slight shimmer in the air as the shield went down. “We’re through. Let’s go.”</p><p>“You guys go on ahead,” Buffy said. “I need to have a word with Illyria.”</p><p>“You want us to go into battle without the person who kills drones with her bare hands?” Auflost said dubiously. “Doesn’t seem like a great idea.”</p><p>“Besides, Illyria's the only person here who actually knows what she’s doing,” Janeway added. She put a hand on Buffy’s arm. She might not have come to the same conclusion that Buffy had, but she was still perceptive enough to know that something was wrong. “Is there a problem?”</p><p>“Uh, not sure. That’s kinda why I want to talk, so I can see if there is.”</p><p>“I can go ahead,” Gordo said. “I can fight at least as well as other me. Plus Barbie Borg can probably reconfigure your sensor array to push us into subspace even if she can’t make the engine go boom or whatever.” Buffy gave her a surprised look. “What? I pay attention, like, <i>sometimes</i> and I built a terraformer out of a shipwreck. I’m not a total brainless bimbo.”</p><p>Before Buffy had a chance to reply, she heard voices coming from ahead of them. “Yeah, we <i>definitely</i> aren’t in Kansas anymore.”</p><p>Buffy felt Janeway’s grip on her arm tighten, but Buffy barely felt it. She <i>recognised</i> that voice. It had been a long, long time since she’d last heard it, but she still recognised it in a heartbeat. </p><p>“<i>Faith?</i>”</p>
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<a name="section0030"><h2>30. Chapter Thirty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was a brief pause, and then a door slid open and Faith warily poked her head into the corridor. Upon seeing Buffy and the others, she emerged fully. She was dressed in dark clothes, was wearing a small backpack, and unless Buffy missed her guess she had at least six different weapons concealed on her person.</p><p>“Hey there, B,” she said nonchalantly, as though this was a totally normal situation and this sort of thing happened to her all the time. “D’you know what’s going on here?”</p><p>Buffy glanced at Illyria, then said “It’s a super long story.”</p><p>Faith nodded as though that was what she’d expected Buffy to say. Probably it had been. “It’s not some sort of kinky sex thing then?”</p><p>Buffy’s eyes bulged. “<i>What</i>? No! Why would you think – nope. Don’t want to know.”</p><p>“I mean, you and your girlfriend are wearing matching pyjamas and it looks like you dredged up another Buffybot from somewhere.” She nodded towards Seven. “Plus you’ve found some sort of cosplay babe and got her to dress in latex. I haven’t worked out what the demons with guns are for yet, but-“</p><p>“It’s not like that,” Buffy said in a strangled voice. She cleared her throat and Janeway removed her hand from Buffy’s arm. She looked both confused and amused. “It’s… no. Just no.”</p><p>Faith shrugged. “Hey, who am I to judge? Just want to know why you whisked us away for your little fantasy. Your timing kinda sucks.”</p><p>“I didn’t – wait. What d’you mean, us? How many of you are there?” Of course there were others. Faith had said ‘<i>we’re</i> not in Kansas’. More than that, now that Buffy thought about it, she could <i>feel</i> them there. The Slayer spirit that was wrapped around her soul felt others. </p><p>After all this time, there were others. She wasn’t alone anymore.</p><p>“Four,” Faith said simply. She didn’t tell them to come out, and none of them did. Buffy understood that. As well as embarrassing her, Faith had mentioned demons with guns. No Slayer worth their salt would just waltz out after hearing that.</p><p>Buffy took a step backwards. <i>Four</i>.</p><p>Faith tilted her head to one side. “You okay there? You look like you just saw a ghost. ‘Cept, you know, actually freaked.”</p><p>“Me? Yeah.” Buffy laughed shakily. “Sure. Totally. You know me, I’m always fine. Just didn’t expect this.”</p><p>Obrist coughed, and it was only then that Buffy really remembered that there were others there. “Sounds like introductions are in order?” he prompted.</p><p>“Oh. Uh. Right. Yeah.” Buffy rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “Faith, this is Captain Janeway. We aren’t wearing matching pyjamas, we’re in uniform.” Buffy saw Faith open her mouth to ask what Buffy was doing in uniform, but she kept talking so she didn’t get a chance. There would be time for all that later. There would be. She’d <i>make</i> time. “The, uh, cosplay girl is Seven of Nine. She’s a Borg. The clothes help keep her skin together. I don’t know what the heels are for.”</p><p>“Seven of Nine, huh,” Faith said. “You know, that’s only one away from Six-“</p><p>“The guys with guns are the Krenim,” Buffy interrupted hurriedly. “They decided to pull a mutiny to save the universe. They’re on our side. As long as you don’t rub in the fact that you probably took out everyone in Engineering, there shouldn’t be any problems. The Buffybot you’ve met, but she goes by Gordo now. Don’t ask why. Illyria rebuilt her.”</p><p>“Okay,” Faith said slowly. When she heard that the Krenim were with Buffy she relaxed slightly, but she still looked like she was ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. “And the reason that Smurfette looks like someone spent a few days whaling on her with a big hammer is?”</p><p>“Time’s breaking.”</p><p>“You know, you’re gonna have to be more specific ‘cause I don’t actually know what that means,” Faith said. Then her eyes widened. She rocked back on her heels and glanced back at the door she’d come through. “This is the future, yeah? That’s why there’s a bunch of tech in there that’s so advanced that Vi can’t make heads or tails of it. We felt the engines and figured some sort of plane or something. Heard the rumours that some of the Supes were designing high-tech airborne aircraft carriers, figured it was something like that, but…” she looked at Buffy. “How long’s your story, exactly?”</p><p>Janeway spoke before Buffy could figure out how to tell someone that they’d been yanked through time. “Supes? Superhumans? Did you come from the Eugenics Wars?”</p><p>“Guess you could call it that, yeah. Never bothered to come up with a fancy name for it, it’s just us versus them.” Faith scratched her head. “Still waiting for an answer on the how long thing.”</p><p>“The year is 2375,” Illyria said bluntly. </p><p>To her credit, Faith barely reacted. The only sign that she’d heard at all was a slight tightening around her jaw. There was, however, a flurry of muffled curses from the other side of the door. Without looking at it, Faith banged her fist against it. “Hey! Cut that out! I picked you for this ‘cause you’re supposed to be professional.”</p><p>There was a moment of silence. Then a voice that Buffy didn’t recognise with an Indian accent spoke. “To be fair, you wanted us to kill the Witch Queen, not to rip-off Quantum Leap.”</p><p>“The Witch – you’re gonna kill Kali?” Buffy asked.</p><p>“That was the plan before the universe got in the way, yeah.” Faith shot her a defiant look as though daring Buffy to tell her that Slayers weren’t assassins.</p><p>Buffy <i>remembered</i> that. It had been back in 2009. She’d only heard about it after the fact. Kali had been one of the only Augments that had actually embraced magic. One day Faith had taken a small group of Slayers, snuck into her palace and killed her. She’d only managed to pull it off because Kali’s right-hand general had decided to sell out to Khan, dividing her attention. It had been the first time that a Slayer had killed an Augument outside of a life-or-death combat situation. No wonder Faith seemed on edge. She’d been just about to go on a mission that she’d thought there was a good chance she wouldn’t be coming back from. </p><p>“Figure it doesn’t go so well,” Faith continued. “I mean, there’s gotta be a reason you’re looking at me like I’m a ghost. Guess not all of us have the same thing with death that you do.”</p><p>“Huh? No,” Buffy said automatically, before stopping to think about it. “It works out fine, it’s just… that was hundreds of years ago.”</p><p>“I believe your confusion arises due to Ensign Summers neglecting to tell you that you are the only one here that has been pulled through time,” Seven clarified. “The current temporal problem made her immortal. She simply lived through the intervening centuries.”</p><p>“You know, it’s kinda creepy hearing someone who looks like that talking like Giles,” Faith said distantly. “Hell, B. you don’t look a day over two hundred.”</p><p>“Thanks. Moisturising does wonders.”</p><p>“If you have finished engaging in meaningless conversation, we should proceed,” Illyria said impatiently. “The next temporal event may occur at any moment.”</p><p>“At least she hasn’t changed,” Faith said drily.</p><p>“Mhm. She’s a universal constant,” Buffy replied.</p><p>Faith stepped away from the door and gestured to it. “Well, don’t let me stop you.”</p><p>The Krenim, Seven, and Illyria filed into Engineering. Janeway looked for a moment like she would stay outside, but then she decided that it was probably better if Faith and Buffy were alone for a while. Gordo was the last to go in, and she pulled Faith into a lightning-quick hug and then leapt away giggling before the other Slayer had a chance to object.</p><p>The three Slayers who had been hiding inside decided to walk out into the corridor. Buffy recognised Vi, who waved at her shyly. The other two she didn’t. There had been a time when she’d known every Slayer. Then they’d found more and she could only recognise them by sight and maybe remember their names if she tried hard. But that had been a long time ago. While Buffy had a good memory, it wasn’t perfect.</p><p>“This is RJ,” Faith said, nodding to a small Indian Slayer, “and Sofia.” Sofia was young, lanky, and looking at Buffy as though she was some sort of angel. Buffy grimaced inwardly. One thing she hadn’t missed was hero worship. “Vi you already know.”</p><p>“Yeah, hi. Nice to meet you,” Buffy said distractedly.</p><p>“So, Ensign, huh?” Faith said, after a moment of awkward silence. “You went military?”</p><p>“Actually I was part of an outlaw guerrilla outfit dedicated to fighting off evil reptile aliens. The military thing kinda happened by accident.”</p><p>“Aliens?” Vi said in surprise. “We figured demons, sure, but <i>aliens</i>? Nah. You’re kidding.”</p><p>“You’re on a spaceship about 60,000 light years from Earth,” Buffy said matter-of-factly. “If I knew where the windows are around here I’d show you.”</p><p>Vi squealed. “How does it work? Is it a generation ship, or did you solve FTL? No, wait, if you’re out this far it’s gotta be FTL. How’d you do it? Alcubierre or – oh gods I’m sorry, it’s just that… <i>ahhh</i> I always wanted to be in space!”</p><p>“Don’t worry about it,” Buffy said, grinning so widely that her face hurt. “I mean, I’m like a billion miles from being an engineer and I’m not really sure whether I should tell you anything anyway ‘cause I’m not really sure what’s going to happen once time gets fixed, but you can still ask.”</p><p>Faith folded her arms across her chest. “You think there’s a chance we’ll be stuck here?”</p><p>Buffy shrugged. “Haven’t a clue. Not like there’s a rulebook for what happens when time goes wonky.” She glanced at Faith then looked away again. “Still, would it be so bad?”</p><p>“Living in the future?” Vi said, practically jumping up and down in excitement. “No way! Not like the past was all that great, you know, and plus there’s <i>space</i>!”</p><p>Sofia opened her mouth to reply, and Buffy just <i>knew</i> that she was going to say something about being happy to be wherever Buffy was, but RJ spoke first. “Kali killed my village,” she said tightly. Buffy felt as though the air had been driven out of her lungs. “I want to see her dead for that. If we are here, then we don’t kill her.”</p><p>“Yeah. Yeah, right. Should probably see about getting you back or whatever.” Buffy rubbed her eyes. She was reasonably sure that Khan would’ve annexed Kali even if Faith and the others hadn’t killed her, but she didn’t think it was a good idea to say that. “It’s just nice to see you guys again. Few hundred years with no one but Blue got old real fast.”</p><p>For a moment it looked like Faith was going to ask about Spike or Angel or Wilson, but then she thought better of it. “Still. We’re here now. Best make the most of it.”</p><p>“Yeah.” Buffy shook her head slightly. “Sorry. Feeling totally blindsided by seeing you. Like, it wasn’t even close to something that I thought might happen. Tentacle space monsters, sure, but not you.”</p><p>Faith looked at her intently. “You wanna give us the skinny on what’s been going on here? The current apocalypse, I mean.”</p><p>Buffy blinked, then quickly outlined the situation. Although Buffy was feeling more than a little frazzled and her recount suffered, the Slayers didn’t interrupt even though they clearly didn’t follow everything.</p><p>“So, basically the Krenim got screwed over by the Rilnar, decided to alter history, got it wrong and thought it was better to keep at it instead of moving on, and now time’s gone kaput and the past is mushing into the present,” Faith summarised once Buffy was done. “That about the size and shape?”</p><p>“Yeah, pretty much.”</p><p>“And we’re sure that Mystique’s got nothing to do with it?” Vi said dubiously. “She’s always - <i>was</i> always? – eh, whatever. She’s always been hung up on her empire dustifying.”</p><p>“I’d like to think she’s not behind it, but time wigged out right after she busted out some ancient language and did some stuff that looked more like magic than science, so who knows? If she is, I dunno what we’re supposed to be doing about it. The only other person who understands this time stuff even a little bit is Seven, and Blue’s got her wrapped around her finger.”</p><p>“You want us to hold her down while you ask her some, uh, <i>pointed</i> questions?” Faith asked. “Could be this whole thing was part of some plan. I get that she’s allergic to time weirdness or whatever, but she seems like the type who wouldn’t mind a little pain if it got her what she wanted.”</p><p>“Not like she’s alone there,” Buffy said. She’d been aiming for a light tone, but it had landed closer to bitter. “She <i>did</i> almost die. I know she’s a shapeshifter and all, but she wasn’t faking that. Pretty sure the only reason she isn’t literally in a million pieces right now is because she’s held together by Borg tech.”</p><p>Vi grunted. “Figures that humans get in on space travel and we run right into the Cybermen.”</p><p>“Uh huh.” Buffy nodded. She tried to remember who the Cybermen were – had that been one of Xander’s names for Adam and the things he’d made? Then she decided that it really didn’t matter. She wondered if this was how Giles had felt. “Thing is, the Krenim are with us ‘cause we look like we know what we’re doing and we’ve got the whole unified front thing going for us. If we haul off and start interrogating Illyria then there’s a solid chance things’ll fall apart real quick.”</p><p>“Meh. They ain’t all that. Went through the ones back in there easy enough,” Faith said with a shrug. “Listen, B, I don’t wanna tell you your business but if time’s breaking and you’re putting the fate of the universe on someone that you only kinda sorta trust then you might wanna get your issues sorted out before it’s too late.”</p><p>“Yeah, I was gonna pull her aside before you guys showed up and suddenly everything else just flew out of my head.”</p><p>“I know I’m hot, but I don’t think I’ve ever made anyone thoughtless before,” Faith said with a wicked grin.</p><p>“Oh, you definitely have,” Sofia murmured while blushing.</p><p>“I was just being modest.”</p><p>“Right,” Buffy said decisively. “Let’s see what we can find out.”</p><p>Before she could do that, she was overcome by a sensation of overwhelming vertigo. Her sense of balance vanished completely and she staggered. She was dimly aware that she should have hit a wall, but it didn’t seem to be where it should have been. Rather, there were dozens, <i>hundreds</i> of walls and corridors stretching out to the horizon. In the distance they were lit by a deep red the colour of blood and torn muscles. For a moment Buffy thought that she was in some kind of giant hall of mirrors – in each corridor she could see herself and the others, reeling and staggering as the universe began to fall apart. As she watched, the light began to move closer.</p><p>Then everything snapped back to normal with an audible twang, and Buffy was left with blood pumping through her head and the feeling that, somewhere deep inside her soul, something was broken.</p><p>“The hell was that?” Faith muttered, her voice pained.</p><p>“I don’t know, but it definitely wasn’t of the good,” Buffy said. </p><p>Suddenly, between one moment and the next, they weren’t the only ones in the corridor. It was filled with tall reptilian men in uniform. They were carrying what looked like high-tech guns which meant that they were probably aliens, but with their scaly skin and horns around their jaws they looked more like demons than most aliens she’d met.</p><p>They seemed just as surprised to see them as they were, and apparently decided that the best way to solve the problem was with violence. The one immediately in front of Buffy pulled out a combat knife and slashed at her throat.</p>
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<a name="section0031"><h2>31. Chapter Thirty-One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Buffy swayed to the side and her arm snapped up to deflect the alien’s knife thrust. Then she straightened her arm into a quick jab at the alien’s throat, but he moved faster than most big scaly things that she’d met. He lowered his head so that she hit him the chin. The bony horn-like ridges that lined his jaw cut her hand, and she winced. </p><p>“You fight well for someone so small,” he boomed. “Surrender, and you won’t be harmed.”</p><p>“Haven’t you heard?” Buffy said cheerily. “Height’s irrelevant.” She poked him in the eyes. He reeled backwards, roaring in pain and surprise. As he staggered away, she kicked him hard in the side of his knee so that he was even more off-balance. “Plus, you know, the bigger they are,” she said as she put her hand on his back and used his momentum to slam him head first into the wall, “the harder they fall.”</p><p>Annoyingly, the alien didn’t seem to understand the power of a good quip and refused to fall. He lunged at her, but she ducked under his arm and slammed her shoulder into his torso, bearing him to the ground. He tried to take advantage of his size to trap her underneath him, but she slipped out, pulled his arm behind his back and kneeled on it. “Now then, what was that you were saying about surrendering?” Buffy said sweetly.</p><p>“We do not surrender! Victory is life!”</p><p>“I was hoping you’d say something like that. I was having a really sucky day, it’s nice to have a problem I can solve with a boatload of violence.” Buffy twisted his arm further, pulling it from its socket. He roared again and tried to force her off his back, and Buffy was having none of it. </p><p>Besides, now she had a knife. It wasn’t like the alien needed it anymore. She stood.</p><p>“You finished playing with your food?” Faith asked. She leapt at another alien and kicked him high in the chest, before vaulting over his head.</p><p>“Yeah, I guess,” Buffy said sheepishly. Then her eyes narrowed. “Is that a sword? You’ve got a sword? No fair! All I’ve got is this knife!”</p><p>Faith shrugged as she ran the alien through. “Should’ve brought your own. Are these the reptile aliens you were talking about?”</p><p>“No. The Cardassians are more like cobras. I don’t know who these guys are,” Buffy answered. “Can I have your sword?”</p><p>“No, B,” Faith said, sounding like she was talking to a small child. “Ask Sofia. The way she looks at you, I’d think she’d give you anything you asked for.” Faith waggled her eyebrows.</p><p>“Can you two stop bickering?” Vi grunted. “Buffy, if you help us deal with these croco-dudes, then you can have <i>my</i> sword.”</p><p>“Oh, <i>fine</i>,” Buffy pouted as she leapt back into the fray. “Why’d you guys even have swords anyway? I thought you were doing the sneaky assassin thing.”</p><p>“They’re quieter than guns and it terrifies the hell out of people when you start swinging them around,” Faith explained. “We’ve got guns and stuff too, but have you ever tried shooting something scaly? Doesn’t work as well as you’d think.”</p><p>The croco-dudes seemed to realise that the Slayers had them outclassed in hand-to-hand combat. A group of them began to retreat while a small squad stayed behind to act as a rearguard so that they could get away.</p><p>“So much for not surrendering,” Faith said, as they fought the stragglers. “We chasing?”</p><p>Buffy would have liked to chase them. Adrenaline was pulsing through her. It had been a long, long time since she’d been a battle with Slayers by her side. But if they gave chase then they’d be leaving Engineering unprotected, and she couldn’t risk that. “Nah. Don’t suppose you happened to see where the life support stuff is?”</p><p>“Dunno. What’s it look like?”</p><p>“It looks… actually, that’s a good point. I don’t know anything about Krenim tech. Maybe something with a big flashing sign?”</p><p>“Surprisingly, no, we didn’t see that.”</p><p>“Oh well. It’s supposed to be around here somewhere. Maybe we’ll know it when we see it.”</p><p>“Yeah, sure. I bet it’ll be right next to the big neon <i>McDonald’s</i> sign.”</p><p>“You say that as though that isn’t the something that might happen, but you just got yoinked three hundred years into the future. <i>McDonald’s</i> on a spaceship isn’t even – duck!”</p><p>It turned out that the reptilian aliens weren’t retreating after all. They’d moved far enough away that they could feasibly use their ranged weapons. They didn’t seem to care about hitting the others that they’d left behind, which worked out for the Slayers because the aliens were a good bit bigger than they were and just about the only cover in the narrow corridor.</p><p>“RJ?” Faith called. “You wanna use one of those grenades?”</p><p>“What grenades?”</p><p>“You know, those grenades you were supposed to bring?”</p><p>“I thought Sofia was bringing them?”</p><p>“What? Why would I be bringing them? I’m carrying the medical stuff!”</p><p>“Well, <i>I</i> don’t have them,” Vi snapped. </p><p>“Did <i>no one</i> bring grenades?”</p><p>“How exactly did you manage to kill Kali?” Buffy said drily.</p><p>“Oh, shut it. You don’t even have a sword.”</p><p>“Sure, rub it in. Anyway, I might not have a sword, but I do have one of <i>these</i>.” Buffy bent down and took a weapon from one of the fallen aliens. She examined it quickly. It seemed like a fairly standard disruptor. She didn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work for her, but then she hadn’t expected the temporal weapon Seven had stolen to do nothing either. “Here’s hoping this works.”</p><p>She fired. A bolt of plasma spat out and hit an alien in the chest. He fell without a sound. Buffy grinned savagely. </p><p>The other Slayer’s quickly grabbed disruptors themselves. “How’s this thing work?” Vi said, turning it over in her hands.</p><p>“Just point and shoot, you can worry about the mechanics later. As long as you’re more accurate than one of those Star Wars guys you should be fine.”</p><p>“Stormtroopers, you mean? Do you still have Star Wars in the future? You’ve gotta be on, like, episode four million or something.”</p><p>“They stopped making them after the twenty-third one, there was – actually, now’s really not the time. Can we just make with the shooting and not with the talking?”</p><p>After a few erratic shots, the Slayers managed to work out how to fire accurately pretty quickly, and they were nimble enough to keep away from the alien’s returning fire. It wasn’t a long battle.</p><p>“These beat crossbows, that’s for sure,” Faith said. “Any chance we can bring a couple of these back?”</p><p>“That’s gotta be a no.”</p><p>“Shame.” Faith shrugged. “Oh well. I guess we’d better go and see what the nerds are up to.” </p><p>Buffy knocked on the door before walking in. “It’s just us, don’t shoot.”</p><p>She didn’t recognise pretty much any of the equipment or machinery in Engineering, but then she didn’t really expect to. She could navigate her way around every type of Starfleet console from communications to tactical, but she’d long since stopped trying to keep up with anything more technical.</p><p>Buffy noticed that Seven and Auflost were working on something together, presumably trying to set up the shift into subspace. Obrist was doing something that Buffy was reasonably sure had something to do with the on-board sensors, if the readings she could see were anything like those on <i>Voyager</i>. Gordo and the other Krenim were all keeping an eye on the door. They relaxed only slightly when the Slayers trooped in. Obviously they’d all heard the battle and had been prepared in case Buffy and the others hadn’t been able to keep it outside. Janeway was hovering just behind Illyria. She seemed torn between concern for the Old One and confusion as she tried to follow what she was doing.</p><p>It took Buffy a couple of seconds to work out exactly <i>why</i> she looked concerned. Illyria still looked like she’d crack if anyone looked at her too hard, but she wasn’t hunched over in agony. In fact Buffy would even have said that she looked relaxed, at least as much as Illyria ever did. There was no sign of pain or tension. Her movements were smooth and fluid.</p><p>The first strange thing that Buffy noticed was that, although her movements were easy and untroubled, there weren’t many of them. She seemed to be keeping herself as still as possible. Once Buffy saw that, she noticed that as Illyria’s hands moved over the console that there would be ghostly after-images of the movement, as though they were seeing echoes of the past.</p><p>“Um, Blue?” Buffy said. “What’s up?”</p><p>There was no reply. There wasn’t even a hint that Illyria had heard her. She just kept working at the console, shadowed by ghosts of her past movements.</p><p>Buffy turned to Seven. “What’s wrong with her now?”</p><p>“I am uncertain,” Seven said without looking up. “She has been uncommunicative. I do, however, have a theory.”</p><p>“Do you?” Janeway said in surprise. “Why didn’t you say anything? We’ve all been on edge wondering when the next shoe is going to drop.”</p><p>“Idle speculation is irrelevant,” Seven answered primly. “Besides, I was otherwise occupied.”</p><p>Buffy sighed noisily. “What’s your theory?”</p><p>“Are you familiar with the concept of prophecy?”</p><p>Faith let out a startled laugh next to her. Buffy glared at her, and the other Slayer managed to turn it into an unrepentant cough. “You could say that,” Buffy replied darkly.</p><p>“On the shuttle, she described herself as a shell or a vessel. She said that she would break. I had assumed that she was simply referring to the temporal energy of this ship causing her physical distress – clearly, her skin has more in common with a shell than one would ordinarily expect. However, I now think that she might have been obliquely referring to something she planned to do in the future. She mentioned that she remembers dying in previous iterations of the loop. She has vague memories of this ship. She has been here before, in timelines that do not now exist. When she bypassed the temporal trap on our cell-“</p><p>“Wait, hold on a moment,” Obrist interjected. “That was her? I thought that was Buffy.”</p><p>“I just made a big thing about it,” Buffy said with a shrug. “My speciality is basically hitting people and making sure they don’t get up again. Anything more complicated than that is probably going to be up to the science squad.”</p><p>Seven continued, a slight air of annoyance the only indication that she’d been interrupted. “Energy cannot be created or destroyed. While some energy was emitted on the visible spectrum when she bypassed the trap, something capable of reversing time in a localised area clearly requires more energy than that. I thought that Illyria had assimilated it in order to regain some sort measure of health.”</p><p>“Well, duh. Of course she did,” Buffy said. “You saw her before. She was basically held together by sheer willpower. But the thing about a shell wasn’t a prophecy. She literally is a shell. Some guy stuffed a god into the body of a girl and it set up shop like, uh, one of those crab things.”</p><p>“Hermit crab,” Vi muttered helpfully.</p><p>“Yeah, one of those things. She’s a god wearing a human shell. She was cracking apart on the shuttle. She was just describing what was happening to her.”</p><p>“However,” Seven said, as though Buffy hadn’t spoken, “I now think that she may have used the energy for a slightly different purpose. The energy this ship generates damages her. In order to make it more… palatable, she used its energy to assimilate the remnants of herself from the aborted timelines.”</p><p>Buffy scratched her head. “So you’re saying that she’s filled herself with ghosts of, um, herself? And now she’s leaking?”</p><p>“She has devoured past versions of herself that she only knew existed because she remembered them. She used the energy of the temporal trap to initiate a paradox that, in the act of coming into existence, feeds upon itself. It seems likely that this was the catalyst that finally broke time.”</p><p>“Okay,” Buffy said slowly. “Blue, you wanna comment? If you’ve gone and turned yourself into a walking paradox then that sounds, like, way bad. Plus if you fall apart again then we’ll probably all die and the universe will be in a place that’s not of the good. So if you’ve got some kind of plan, now would really be a good time to share it before there’s some kind of major freak-out.”</p><p>She didn’t really expect an answer. There was no indication that Illyria had heard anything anyone had said. It wasn’t even clear that she knew that they were there at all. She seemed totally and completely focused on what she was doing.</p><p>So Buffy was taken completely by surprise when Illyria looked up. A shock ran through Buffy as the Old One’s eyes met hers. They were so bright that it looked like they were actually glowing, as though they were lit by some distant light deep within her. When she spoke, it sounded like thousands of voices speaking all at once. All of them were hers. There was also the faint mechanical edge that made Buffy instantly think of the Borg. But that wasn’t all. Threaded through her voice was a rumbling roar, like the sound of distant thunder. </p><p>Buffy remembered when the sky had split open on Nikrenna. The way that Illyria had screamed when Gordo had walked into the temporal trap. The strange moment out in the hall, just before the aliens had appeared. She’d seen countless corridors and countless versions of herself stretching out to the horizon, and light the colour of blood and torn muscles creeping towards her like a slow tidal wave.</p><p>When Illyria spoke, Buffy heard all of that. But, more than anything, she heard that time was running out.</p><p>“I do not enjoy this game,” Illyria echoed. “It’s pointless, and yet I’m compelled to play. If I must play, then it will be on my terms. This game will end. I will end it.”</p>
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